Phantoms of Azarath
by Griffinmon
Summary: UPDATED! Something dark within Raven has been building, ending in what will become the return of Trigon. Left without a choice, she must abandon morals and place faith in Starfire. But will Starfire abandon faith, or will she rise above it?
1. ACT I: Mysteries and Signs

**A/N:** Mm, loosely based on The Phantom of the Opera --- the book, most definitely. No need to have read it for this, but it helps. I've been working on this for a good long while, so I hope it's worth it. This thing's thirty pages long, and the next two acts will be about twenty each. Hope you really like reading... Hope you like symbolism.

**Disclaimer:** Gaston Leroux and T.S. Eliot rock, and Marv Wolfman is the king of storytelling.

**Summary:** Act One of Three. Something dark within Raven has been building, ending in what will become the return of Trigon. Left without a choice, she must abandon morals and place faith in Starfire. Mild RavenStar

**Notes:** As usual, most of my logic is derived from the comics, as I don't receive Cartoon Network. Go ahead and assume this all takes place sometime between season two and three, seeing as I don't have any particular time-frame in mind. Regard this, even, as an alternate universe fiction, if you will. If it doesn't matter to you, just enjoy, but if you're going to bitch about cartoon continuity, go away now. I don't want to deal with you.

**Phantoms of Azarath**  
by: Griffinmon  
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**ACT I: Mysteries and Signs of Darkening Skies**

Just a few hours previous, the day had nearly been as bright and clear as the eyes which watched the boiling thunderheads as they raced across the rapidly darkening sky. Starfire of Tamaran gave a short sigh, disappointed at the sun's unscheduled disappearance, and turned to glance at Raven, as if to beseech the young sorceress to banish this weather to whatever darkness from which it had sprung.

Raven did not return the look, continuing to read instead—after all, if she was to indulge Starfire and sit with her --- in the _sun_, no less --- she was going to bring something worthwhile to do while they idled. Starfire understood this, and asked no questions other than the name of her book; Raven only answered with a low murmur that had sounded like _Faust_. The silence that followed her answer was more than enough to confirm Raven's reluctance to continue the conversation, so Starfire, in her hard-earned wisdom, did not try.

Raven had done her best to stay in whatever shade the roof of Titan Tower offered, while Starfire, of course, did the exact opposite. For Beast Boy, it only mattered who was closer --- this, unfortunately for both him and Starfire, was Raven.

The changeling made a graceful leap from the trapdoor that lead down into the Tower, cruising on the first wave of strong wind that bustled up from the ocean, and dropped purposely onto Raven's lap as a friendly green bullfrog. Raven tore her eyes from her book and stared at the beast briefly before taking swift, uncalculated action. Beast Boy had not the chance to even croak a single 'Co-ack' before Raven slapped him forcefully from her lap with her copy of _Faust_, scrambling to her feet with the speed of surprise.

"Dude!" Beast Boy snapped gleefully, resuming his human shape and spitting out the pocket-novel. "I got you! I got you _good_!"

Raven's shock quickly melted back into a stoic mask.

Beast Boy grinned, Starfire giggled from behind her hand, but Raven's eyes grew venomous.

"That wasn't funny."

"Are you kidding?" Beast Boy rocked back and forth on his haunches, bubbling with joy. "That was awesome! I got you _so_ good---"

Starfire choked down her laughter out of respect. "Friend Raven is correct, Beast Boy. Your joke was not very practical at all."

"Where's my book?" Raven broke in, glancing about. "What did you do with my book?"

"Um," Beast Boy paused, blinking. "I didn't?"

Raven glared and looked over the side of the building, in time to see a small red hardcover floating out to sea. "My book!"

Beast Boy gulped, "I didn't mean to do _that_! Look, I'll go get it!" He shifted into the form of an otter and wagged his tail to emphasize.

"Don't bother!" Raven snapped at the fuzzy green mammal, turning her back to them and summoning her power. "I'll get it myself."

Meanwhile, Starfire steeled herself, knowing Raven's temper, and lack thereof, well. "Raven," she called. The sorceress did not turn to acknowledge her, descending quickly into the Tower, engulfed by darkness. Starfire looked at otter Beast Boy, who blinked dejectedly at the golden Tamaranean.

Starfire made her decision, and floated up.

She reached ground level in time to see the black familiar rise from the earth and reform as Raven. The sorceress muttered something unseemly about Beast Boy, striding forward into the water.

Starfire stepped forward, "Friend Raven!"

The dark Titan glanced back, unsurprised. "What?"

"Friend Raven, please allow me to retrieve your book," Starfire said, bowing courteously. "It is the least I could do, in payment for our time of hanging out."

Raven's stern expression softened. "Starfire, you don't have to--"

"Please," Starfire stated firmly, in a tone Raven could not ignore.

The young sorceress gave a short sigh, resuming her former stoicism. "Fine."

Starfire squealed in delight, springing from the earth and shooting towards the water. Raven watched with a slight smirk of amusement as the Tamaranean darted to and fro in search of the little red book. With a grand dive and even grander surface, Starfire soared triumphantly back to shore, where Raven stood patiently, _Faust_ in hand.

Raven regarded the soaked hardcover with a novel glance, and then turned her attentions toward a soaked Starfire. High above, electricity crackled in the clouds and thunder announced its presence. Raven could sense Starfire's discomfort, but beneath that, she sensed a pulsing joy that beat as loud as the alien's kind heart.

A book was an object, something Raven could replace cheaply and with relative ease, but Starfire was her friend --- something very much worth protecting, whatever the cost. Raven unfastened her cloak and tossed it around the Tamaranean's shoulders, ordering the alien inside to dry off. Starfire obliged willingly, nestling tightly into the soft folds of Raven's own cover as she floated into the Tower.

The sorceress threw a last glance at the darkened sky, sensing an ominous rise within the clouds as the sky was rent asunder, rain gushing down in torrents onto a quiet city as if it were a reprimand sent by an angry god.

Raven paused at the sound, shivered.

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_Anything_ from _Carmina Burana_ was probably the last thing in the world Raven would have thought to find herself listening to as she silently selected another cloak from her closet to replace the one she'd given Starfire --- simply too ironic, perhaps, yet on it played.

_obumbrata et velata michi quoque niteris;_

It played quietly, intoning ubiquitously, from a small stereo in a corner of her room.

_nunc per ludum dorsum nudum fero tui sceleris._

There was a knock, timid and --- according to Raven's inner eye --- Starfire. Raven answered the door and was surprised to find the Tamaranean still wrapped up in the empath's cloak.

"Starfire?" she asked, almost incredulously but managing to shield it. "Why haven't you dried off, yet? You could catch a cold like that."

The alien blinked, "May I borrow a candle, Friend Raven?"

The sorceress stared, disbelieving. "What?"

"A candle," Starfire repeated. "May I---"

"Why in the world do you need a candle?"

Starfire gave her friend a look, one that implied that the answer should have been obvious. "My room is cold. You have many candles, so I thought I could--"

"We could just turn up the heat in your room, then."

"Oh," Starfire answered, sounding somewhat disappointed. "Um."

Raven turned, unconsciously placing a hand to her temple in aggravation as she finally sensed the Tamaranean's purpose. "Come in, don't just stand there."

The chorus continued, louder, _sors salutis et virtutus michi nunc contraria._

With a mind-boggling amount of energy, Starfire flounced into the room, a big smile beaming from her damp but still glowing countenance.

_est affectus et defectus semper in angaria._

The alien paused momentarily, glancing around the dark room. "Raven?"

"What is it?"

_hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite;_

"I did not know you had a box from which to play the music."

Raven looked up with tired eyes. "Surprised?"

_quod per sortem sternit fortem mecum omnes plangite!_

"A little. Why does the chorus sing of the weasel dens of Okaara?"

Raven sighed heavily.

The thunder roared mercilessly at a drenched city, and the wind howled with a fury no one could have expected. Raven lay on her bed, eyes closed as she listened. She could smell the steam that frothed from her bathroom, which she'd diplomatically allowed Starfire to use. The opera chorus in the corner chanted on beneath all the noise.

Images formed and flickered behind her eyelids, dark and light entwined, soft yet terrible. There were falling stars, rings of gold, an angel, a splash of red, and the ever-redeeming touch of water. And Azar, who told her things, and a mask of four dead eyes. And in the midst of it all…

Raven.

Raven?

Raven opened her eyes.

Starfire stared back.

"Raven, are you alright?"

The empath blinked the thoughts away, thinking hard and thinking fast. She propped herself up slowly, giving the Tamaranean another tired look. "Just peachy."

The weather disagreed, bellowing, beating against the Tower with mighty fists. The structure stood firm amidst the divine tantrum.

Starfire carefully wrung her massive amount of hair with an equally large towel, listening to the threats of the thunder above. "Thank you, Friend Raven," she said with a tone strangely somber. "For allowing me to stay here for the night."

Raven nodded passively. "I suppose I could stand some company in this weather."

There came yet another knock at the door.

Without thinking, Starfire answered it, still cradling the massive towel to her head.

Beast Boy stared at the alien in confusion. "Star?"

She smiled in the normal Starfire fashion. "Yes, Beast Boy? What may I do for you?"

The changeling blinked once, twice, gazed in all directions. "Wrong room? Uh, I'm just… um, where's Raven?"

"Oh!" The Tamaranean floated back from the door, turning to the sorceress. "Forgive me, Raven! I have intercepted your caller."

"That's fine. Have him leave a message at the beep," Raven answered wryly, without getting up.

Starfire passed a quizzical glance back and forth between the changeling and the empath, before she turned and smiled sheepishly at Beast Boy. "Beep?"

"Ray-_ven_! I _know_ you're in there!" Beast Boy whined from the doorway, pointing accusingly at her supine form. "I can see you from here!"

"And?"

"Come on! I just wanna apologize for the book thing!"

"I'm listening," Raven sat up and Starfire watched them both with a mix of bewilderment and anticipation.

Beast Boy rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the floor. "I didn't mean to spit your book into the bay. I was just kidding around, and it just happened. I'm sorry, okay?"

"Whatever."

"Great!" Beast Boy grinned, spinning on his heel and strutting off and away as if he were on parade.

Starfire shut the door carefully and without a sound, glancing oddly at Raven. "Though I do not recognize many of this planet's colloquialisms, Raven, I do believe I know you well enough to identify your… _sarcasm_." She pronounced the word tentatively, unsure on her grasp of the Terran language.

Raven rewarded her with an offhanded shrug. "At least someone got it."

It took a considerable amount of time before Starfire could consider her hair reasonably dry, before she could join Raven on the dark blue or black covers of her wide bed. She smiled pleasantly at the empath, though the sorceress seemed to ignore her. Starfire leaned on her arm, trying to see into Raven's quiet face, but the Azarathean merely turned over and avoided her. The golden alien sat up, the concern literally lighting her eyes, throwing a soft green radiance over Raven's frail form.

Starfire clasped her hands together, twiddling her fingers anxiously. "Raven, what is the matter?"

The empath turned a sharp look to the alien. "What do you mean? I'm fine."

"You seem very distracted. It is unlike you."

The genuine worry that Starfire reflected in her great green eyes and the fact that Raven felt she really was strangely unfocused made for a very disturbing realization. Something dark was at hand, because nothing in Raven's life ever happened by coincidence.

Of course, this was not something one shared – or, at the very least, this was not something _Raven_ shared. Raven lay back, deliberately avoiding the alien's eyes. "I just need sleep, I'll be fine."

Starfire's thin eyebrows rose significantly. "Raven?"

"What is it?" The vexation in her voice only worsened.

The hesitation in her voice, her failed attempt to casually dismiss herself, was equally as worrisome as the dream. "I… Never mind." And she lay down next to the empath, facing away, staring at the wall.

Raven wondered, drifted.

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"Titans, assemble!" Robin's mechanically-distorted voice cut cruelly through the silence brought on by the lessening storm.

Starfire darted up, instantly awake, but Raven moved sluggishly. Not wanting the other Titans to notice, she shrank into the darkness and reformed where Robin had made the announcement. Starfire and Cyborg were the next to stand ready at their leader's side; Beast Boy crawled out of his room in a worse stupor than Raven had awoken with--- but _that_ was to be expected from the changeling.

"Guys," Robin turned to his fellow teammates, looking disheveled and quite grave. "We've got a problem."

The others simply waited for him to continue, each too tired to question.

"I know it's late," he began; the others agreed in an irritated hush. "But I thought we should all be aware, keep a look out."

"For?" Cyborg prompted, subtly nudging Beast Boy, who seemed to be asleep on his feet.

The Boy Wonder took a moment to organize his mental notes into something more coherent than what he'd seen. He cleared his throat, coughed, and scanned the tired faces of his team and gauging their reactions. "Well, I'm not sure."

There was an uncomfortable silence before Robin attempted to continue. "I mean, I don't know what we're looking for or what it is, but…"

"And you dragged us out'ta bed _why_?" Cyborg interrupted.

Robin held up his hands to calm the sudden demand of answers. "I dragged you out of bed to tell you that I saw something staring at me from the window."

Cyborg raised his eyebrow, "How can you even tell, from your room? It's like the Batcave in there, covered with all your newspaper stuff."

"Not _my_ window--- from the kitchen."

The parts of Cyborg which were still human emitted a clearly skeptical air, from the raised eyebrow down to the slight twitch that occurred only so often in his fleshy bicep.

"Something's watching the Tower," Robin asserted. "And whatever it is, it probably sent that storm, too."

Beast Boy yawned, stretching like a cat, as a cat. "So, what? Those element twins back again?"

Starfire shook her head slowly. "Thunder and Lightning said they would respect our laws, they said they would not cause trouble again."

Raven, from beneath her dark cowl, wondered silently, spoke softly. "Perhaps they lied."

Starfire turned an appalled look towards Raven. "What do you mean? They would not lie to us, they are our friends! They are good people!"

Robin halted their argument before it could progress. "I don't think this is the work of Thunder and Lightning. Whatever is hanging around out there is trying to send us a message. It wants something."

"Aw, come on," Cyborg muttered, rolling his eye. "How can you even tell that when you don't even know what---" The room went dark and Cyborg ground his sentence to a stop. "The heck?"

Robin responded quietly, "It's a hunch."

"That's funny, bird boy," the big teen muttered. "Real funny."

"Perhaps we have, what I think is called, a _phantom_ who is causing us such a bother," Starfire pondered aloud.

Beast Boy snapped awake. "A ghost? We got a _ghost_?"

"It's probably just a blown fuse," Raven interjected, sensible.

Cyborg's glowing mechanical eye turned to the cloaked enigma, and Raven could sense his smile. "Good idea! At least someone around here's being reasonable."

"But that's just what it wants us to think!" The changeling wailed. "For all we know, it's hiding in the basement, and when you go down there to check on the fuses, BAM!"

The silence about the group answered for them—they were not convinced.

Robin confirmed the thought. "R_igh_t. Cyborg, let's check the fuses."

With a minute click, Cyborg's shoulder-light popped up and lighted the way as the half-machine and the Boy Wonder set out on their quest to restore power to the Tower.

Beast Boy gulped as they disappeared down the stairs. "They're dead," he moaned, "They're so dead…"

Starfire lifted her fist, shining a solar green light onto the three of them. The room they stood in glowed ominously with them.

Raven sighed, turning her back to the light and gazing out the huge Tower windows, over the vast bay. "I suppose there's not much else we can do but stay calm."

It was then that the inexplicable occurred… Raven drew back with a sharp gasp, moving quickly and, coincidently, into Starfire. Starfire uttered a cry, releasing a Starbolt that blew a hole in the ceiling as she stepped back and on to Beast Boy's tail; he yelped in pain and surprise as insulation and small pieces of plaster rained down on them. By the time they realized what had happened, the empath was already gone. The Tamaranean managed to calm a dog-shaped Beast Boy, but she saw there was no way to help a vanished Raven. She called out to the Azarathean, a shivering Beast Boy following closely at her heels, wandering in a circle until the lights came back on.

Blinded momentarily, Starfire stumbled, and fell over the changeling, and into a cloaked figure. "Robin!" she squeaked, "Raven is---" Her vision settled on Raven's face, who wore a decidedly displeased expression.

"Raven is what?"

Starfire floated out of the shorter girl's grasp, blinking. "Missing?"

"You're imagining things," the empath returned grimly, and then, to herself, "So must I." A moment's pause, then Raven looked up. "What happened to the ceiling?"

Starfire smiled timidly, pawing at the back of her head as Raven sighed.

Beast Boy whined, leaning his head against Starfire's leg as a small, green puppy. He could not bring himself to say that the atmosphere had been distorted—there was the scent of fatal change, that made his senses tingle ominously even in the pleasant brightness of his home.

Robin and Cyborg emerged from the stairwell, alive and looking quite fine in the fluorescent lights. Cyborg grinned at the nervous wreck of emerald fur that hid behind Starfire. "Relax, B.B." he chuckled, "It was just the fuse. No ghoulies are gonna get ya' tonight."

Beast Boy returned to his human form, steeling his voice for a comeback. "For your infor_mation_, I wasn't scared."

"Sure, B.B., if you say so…. Whoa, man, what happened to the ceiling?"

"_I_ _wasn't_---" Beast Boy cut his argument short with an almost girlish squeal, pointing past Cyborg's hulking metal frame to the window.

The Titans turned collectively, in time to see a dark shadow fleeing into the cloudy gloom. Robin moved first, unsheathing his Bo staff and running towards the stairs which led to the roof. "Cyborg, Raven, come with me! Beast Boy, you and Starfire see if you can follow it. Titans, go!"

Rain, even as slack as it had become, still battered against the Teen Titans as they emerged from their tower to face an unseen threat. Their chase, however, went as far as the edge of the right wing.

"Okay, guys," Robin uttered solemnly. "What can you see?"

Cyborg shook his head, answering gruffly. "Nothing moving for miles around, here."

Raven remained silent longer than she'd wanted. Robin repeated his query, jerking her from her reverie. Raven kept her eyes from making contact with the rest of the team, responding quietly, "Same here."

Robin rested his attention on the empath. "You're sure?"

Raven tensed, knowing well he sensed her untruthfulness. "Nothing human."

Starfire landed gently to one side, Beast Boy dropping suddenly from the sky after. She lowered her head, disappointed in her failure. "We could not find any trace of a trespasser."

Robin put a hand to his chin, thinking deeply. He spoke out loud, though it seemed to be directed in particular towards Raven. "So, if it isn't human, just what are we dealing with, here?"

"I told you it was a ghost!" Beast Boy interjected sharply. "I saw it! I told you! I _told_ you!"

Cyborg smiled, rolled an eye, deciding to humor the changeling. "Was it the ghost who killed our ceiling?"

The changeling blinked, suddenly calm. "Um, well, no, that was Star, but I _did_ see a ghost!"

"Okay, B.B., okay. What did you see?"

Beast Boy stood at his full height – only a little taller than the very short Raven – and took on his most solemn, story-telling face. "It was the biggest ghost I've ever seen. This tall and this big around," he emphasized by swinging his arms about. "And it had a head like a skull and its eyes were all glowy-like and it had a big cloak that was all like WOOSH and it---"

"Maybe we should go inside for this," Robin interrupted, wisely.

Once inside and dry, the Titans allowed Beast Boy to continue his narrative once they were comfortably seated on their wide couch. The moments they had spent away from each other had, unfortunately, given the changeling just enough time to compose himself and to spice up the story far more than anyone would have wanted.

"Okay, so there I was," he started, waving a flashlight about as he turned out the light. "The lightning was getting real nasty after the lights went out, and you and Robin went down to the basement to check the fuses. I would've gone, of course, but you know— _someone's_ gotta keep a look out for the ladies, right?" He grinned, wriggling his eyebrows at Starfire, who giggled. "Then BAM!" He clicked on the flashlight, illuminating his green face with an ill-omened light. "I saw it, out the window. It was huge, with eyes like fire in a big, white skull head. I felt my heart stop for a minute, and then I remembered by solemn duty to protect the girls. I steeled myself and—"

"Is any of this story gonna be _true_?" Cyborg cut in, a bored look on the human half of his face.

"Dude, this is totally true!" Beast Boy declared seriously. "It's what I saw!"

"And _what_ did you see?" the mechanical teen asked again, smugly.

"It was, like a, like, a – a death's head!" the changeling burst excitedly. "With flames spitting out of its mouth and a voice like a, a train! And it was all like, BEAST BOY! GIVE ME YOUR BRAINS!"

"My," Raven broke in, wryly. "Lucky that you didn't have any to spare."

"Hey!" the changeling shouted, his playful grin spread ear to ear. "That's not cool, dude. You can't just go around dissing the man who saved your telekinetic butt."

Raven almost laughed, smiling very meanly, "Of course, how could I forget how you so bravely warded off the shadow by turning into a puppy and hiding with your tail between your legs."

Beast Boy did not reply, but looked down, ears drooping visibly as his ego all but tangibly deflated like a balloon.

"Aw, come on, Ray," Cyborg chuckled, "He's just joking. Cut him some slack, will ya'?"

Raven stood and turned on the light, then left without another word.

Starfire rose to follow, but found her path blocked by Robin. The Tamaranean tried to maneuver around the Boy Wonder, but he persisted. "Give her some room, okay?"

Starfire sank slowly back onto her seat, pushing back her instinctual need to help with all the power of her being, knowing that Robin was correct. Raven needed space --- she just wished she knew why.

Cyborg was first to his feet when the Titan Tower's doorbell sounded. "What now?"

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Raven became aware of another presence in her room as soon as she had entered. She could sense her friends in the other room, so she was sure Beast Boy had not tried to follow her; besides, this was an aura of darkness, much like her own, but in very different ways. While her own soul healed the pain of others, his made her skin crawl.

She paused at the door, struggling between her pride and him. Granted, she had resisted him all her life; but still she cursed her pride as she closed the door behind her.

A dark light glowered within the antique chest near her bed; further investigation found her hand mirror beckoning her company. His eyes stared out, evil and grinning.

_Raven_, he hissed softly. _My Raven_.

The empath snorted brusquely. "I'm not yours yet, _father_."

She set the mirror back in the chest, face down, rearranging a few books in order to bury it. Raven closed the chest with an air of authority, smirking at her own audacity.

_I disagree_, his voice continued, from behind her.

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"Speedy!" Robin stammered, shocked at the honorary Titans' unannounced visit. "Aqualad? Hot Spot? What are you guys doing here?"

Speedy gave his equal an odd smile. "What do you mean, what are _we_ doing here? We got _your_ call."

Cyborg turned a wary glance at the soaking wet guests – barring Aqualad who, understandably, was _always_ soaking wet. "You're serious?"

Hot Spot shot the mechanical teen a miserable glare from beneath his umbrella. "Well, _yeah_. Do you _really_ think we'd be here this late at night if we weren't?"

Aqualad flashed a charming grin. "Great weather, huh?"

"**_No_**," answered everyone else.

The ginger-haired archer raised a neatly-shaped eyebrow, "So are you guys gonna let us in, or not?"

Speedy didn't seem amused when they informed him that the "call" had been some sort of mistake. Robin apologized nonetheless and invited the boys to stay the night. They would think about it in the morning.

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Raven whirled to face her tormentor, growling, "Trigon!"

She faced an empty room. The lamps which provided her light flickered dimly, ready to give under the smothering pressure of so much dark influence. Raven figured she felt a little like that.

A movement in her vanity mirror caught Raven's eye – across from it, there was nothing but the wall, so he must have been ---

Raven approached the pentagon-shaped glass, was not at all surprised to see his eyes.

_Come to me_. They seemed to smile, his voice echoing strangely. _I am your Angel of Music_.

"Funny," Raven replied bluntly, "I thought you hated music."

_Your temper is refreshing_, it chuckled. _Your fear, delicious_.

His image changed; Raven looked back at herself. The likeness smiled devilishly --- never a good sign --- holding a ghostly-white mask to her face, the mask of her dream. When the mirror image lifted her face for Raven to see ---

She saw her _own_ eyes, dead, unseeing, staring.

His --- alive, ubiquitous, angry.

Raven turned her head, unable to keep watching what she already knew was predestined.

She ignored the knock at the door.

_Why do you turn_, asked her doppelganger. _From truth_?

"I won't let it happen," hissed Raven.

_I will give you whatever it is you wish_, Trigon rumbled quietly from behind the mirror. Raven thought she felt the walls tremble. _Join me_.

"No," Raven snapped immediately.

The knock persisted, but so did Raven.

Raven's double faded from sight, replaced by illustrations of such grandeur that Raven felt nauseated. Trigon sensed this, changed the image; the Teen Titans stood regally in place. Raven forced herself to ignore it when they fell from their nobility into Trigon's cruel game. She watched them struggle in vain, die slowly, painfully, one by one ---

"Stop," Raven rasped; her chest felt tight. Their pain was more than she could bear; more than any other hurt he could inflict, this was the greatest of them all.

The images repeated themselves --- Robin, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Starfire --- suffering, crying, screaming, dying, slowly ---

"_Stop_," Raven repeated, harsher.

_You have the power to stop this_, Trigon echoed, from places she couldn't identify. _Use it. Join me_.

"I won't," her voice cracked, her head and heart pounded in sickly unison.

_Raven_, her mirror suddenly called. _Raven_!

The empath looked up, paled as the Tamaranean came closer, reaching out.

_So that is it_, Trigon chuckled darkly. _That is what you want_. _You shall have it_.

Arms slid around the Azarathean, solid and warm and smelling of rain. She felt a second heart beat against her back, the soft breath of another tickle her neck. Raven tensed – she would not --- _never_ --- allow herself to be taken in. Trigon would not play on her desire for companionship, because she would not allow him.

"_Stop_!" Raven howled, her black magic throwing off the arms and the warmth and the love and leaving her cold. With them gone, the empath felt her self-control return. "Just stop," she muttered, forbidding.

"Raven!" A burst of brilliant green light accompanied the sound of steel splintering under Tamaranean force. "Raven, are you in danger?"

It took all the strength Raven could summon to keep her shaking knees from collapsing beneath her. "I'm fine," she lied, wearing once again the stoic mask that her friends knew all too well.

Starfire's eyes glowed softly in the dark, troubled and sad. "But, I heard you scream-!"

Raven pulled her cloak tight around her thin, shaken form. "It's your imagination."

Starfire floated forward, wanting to see her dear friend's face more clearly through the thick shadows, reaching out to offer her help.

Raven recoiled from her touch; her power, reacting to reaction, forced the pentagonal looking-glass to shatter. Starfire cried out, guarding her face from the glittering shards; when she opened her eyes, Raven was gone.

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Shortly after Raven had fled, Starfire, looking incurably crestfallen, carefully explained what had happened to a host of bewildered Titans.

"I see." The Boy Wonder shook his head gently, "Don't worry, Star. I'm sure she's fine."

Starfire found herself grateful that the boy was above petty 'I Told You So's.

"You know," Speedy added, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "This is all pretty weird."

"Yeah," Hot Spot agreed derisively, "First you call us out here for no apparent reason; now your creepy friend wants to be alone."

"Raven is not _creepy_," Starfire at once defended. "She is merely eccentric!"

"_Her_ eccentricity," the fiery titan spat, "Is one step below creepy."

Beast Boy, who had been sitting quietly in a corner, leapt up and bounded over to his fellow crime fighters. "Dude, forget Raven, what about the _ghost_?"

Hot Spot snapped his focus to the changeling, sounding interested. "Ghost?"

Speedy smirked glibly, throwing a questioning glance at Robin. "You didn't mention you had a ghost."

Cyborg picked Beast Boy up by the back of his shirt, chiding the boy with his one human eye; the mutant shrugged, smiling innocently. "We didn't mention it," the big teen interrupted, "'Cause we _don't_."

"_Dude_," Beast Boy whined as Cyborg dropped him to move on towards his room. "How come you guys don't believe me? I'm totally telling the truth!"

"Because there are _no such things as ghosts_," Cyborg yelled back from the hallway. "Look, believe what you want, B.B., it's too late to argue."

"You can't leave!" the changeling called back, hopping behind the half-human. "What d'you think you're doing? What about – what about the ghost?"

"For the last time, B.B.-!" Cyborg only barely stopped himself from bellowing, distracted by movement in the shadows. He stared for no more than a second before his mechanical half informed him that there was nothing there.

"Please, friends," Starfire implored, floating up to the arguing pair. "Let us not fight anymore tonight!"

Cyborg shook off whatever strange little inklings he'd had of Beast Boy being right. He glanced at Starfire, looking for a sign that she'd seen what he had. She made no motion, so he carefully replied, "You're right, Star. Look, B.B. – it's late, let's just go to bed and argue about it in the morning like we always do. Okay?"

Beast Boy smiled up at the big teen, nodding. "Sure thing, dude."

"But that is not what I meant," interjected the Tamaranean, left hovering confusedly in the middle of the hall, as the two parted and disappeared into their own rooms.

The first rays of morning found the sky to be completely covered with a blanket of dark clouds and, finding it so futile to make themselves known, retreated to continue slumbering behind it.

The Teen Titans congregated later in the day than usual, though it began the same: Cyborg and Beast Boy argued over what to serve their guests, while Robin, Speedy, and Hot Spot looked on in fascinated amusement. They had already paged Aqualad, who had opted to sleep in the Tower's swimming pool, and assumed he was on his way up.

"You can't serve that!"

"Look, little man. This is _my_ kitchen, so I'm gonna serve what I wanna serve, and if I wanna see bacon on my plate, I'm gonna have bacon!"

"But it was _alive_ once!" Beast Boy burst, twitching with excitement. "Don't you have a heart!"

"It's an _animal_, B.B." Cyborg paused briefly upon seeing the look the changeling was giving him – as a piglet. He brushed off the transformation easily, reaching into the fridge and pulling out a package. "Nice try, B., but we're havin' bacon."

"You're heartless; do you hear me, Tin Man?" The green boy howled. "_Heartless_!"

The half-machine rolled his eye. "At least I'll be a _well-fed_ Tin Man."

"But it's not _fair_-!" Beast Boy, for a few seconds, actually looked defeated. Then, with a quick glance at the table, where Speedy, Hot Spot and Robin sat, turned back to Cyborg with a determined look, pointing a finger at them. "You don't see me carving up _Speedy_ for breakfast!"

The big teen laughed at the notion; his voice dripped sarcasm. "_Please_, B.B., spare me!"

"Just think, Cy!" Beast Boy grinned, hopping onto his metal shoulder as a monkey. "Mm, can't you see it? Speedy Ka-Bobs! Speedy Ranchero! Speedy Flambé!" Cyborg groaned, shoving the changeling off his shoulder and wisely exiting the kitchen.

Beast Boy landed on his feet, following closely as he bellowed out more recipe ideas: "Speedy and dip! Speedy with Cheese! SPEEDY A LA PEPPERCORNS AND MUSTARD!"

Meanwhile, Speedy remained seated at the table, smiling good-naturedly as he watched the fighting pair leave, eyebrows raised high. "I'm not sure of whether I should be laughing or frightened."

Hot Spot stifled his laughter with his hand, pressing back the humor long enough to reply, "Frightened. Definitely frightened."

Cyborg reentered the kitchen quickly, hands over his ears as now _both_ Aqualad and Beast Boy had joined forces in following him, each howling in individual, vegetarian protest.

"_Okay_!" The half-metal teen roared over them both. The stunned silence that followed his outburst gave his ears a welcomed rest. "Okay, look. What if I just break out the _milk_ and _cookies_?" He glowered at the two, and then at the Titans sitting casually at the table. "_Anyone_ got any objections to that?"

A sigh echoed in the stillness of the kitchen, and then Hot Spot quietly raised a hand. He gave the big teen a forlorn look as he said, "I'm lactose intolerant."

Beast Boy and Aqualad darted out of Cyborg's reach and out of sight as the he let out a dismal bellow, fleeing from the kitchen.

Once out of earshot, the fiery Titan doubled over in a bout of hysterical laughter, pounding the table with a clenched fist. He was promptly joined by Speedy, and Robin, who chuckled, leaning his head on his hand as he said, "Does this mean we don't get breakfast?"

"My dear friends," interrupted a soft voice from the kitchen's entrance – Starfire, looking as if she hadn't slept. "Have you seen Raven today? She disappeared yesterday, but to my knowledge has not returned."

There was something in her voice, that cheerless, anxious tone, which silenced the laughing boys almost immediately.

Hot Spot shook his head, "Uh-uh."

Speedy turned to look at the pretty Tamaranean, gesturing his sympathies. "No. Sorry."

Aqualad peeked out from under the table, glancing around for any sign of Cyborg before speaking. "Not today. I saw her walking around last night, though."

Robin then let out a small sigh. "Are you sure this is anything to worry about? She's disappeared before. She probably just wants some alone time."

"This is different," the alien murmured glumly. "I have never seen her like this!"

She said nothing more, suddenly feeling that they didn't believe her.

Speedy shrugged apologetically as she left. "So, about this ghost…?"

The fly that had been buzzing around the area reformed as Beast Boy next to him. "I totally saw it!"

----------------------------------------

If I were Raven, Starfire pondered as she floated silently down the stairwell, where would I go? She'd already checked the roof and most of the Tower before asking the boys --- Raven's room was as dark and empty as the caves of Okaara, her door temporarily replaced by an old shower curtain until Cyborg could make another one --- and there had been no sign of the empath elsewhere --- not that Raven ever wanted to leave a trail. She was probably meditating somewhere, where it was quiet, where she wouldn't be disturbed. Starfire didn't think that Raven would leave the island while the sky still looked ready to burst.

Starfire thought for several moments; she then flew through the door and around the Tower's base, through trees and exotic plants Starfire herself had brought from Tamaran to remind her of her home planet's beauty.

She halted her flight upon hearing Raven's voice, debating whether or not to burst through the brush, hug the empath and cry, or to go back and allow Raven to enjoy her alone time. She set her feet on the ground, delving for the middle path.

"Raven?" she called quietly, only loud enough for the Azarathean to hear. "Are you there?"

No reply came, making Starfire wonder.

She moved forward, edging through the leafy foliage. "Raven?"

Starfire stopped in her tracks, surprised at how close she had come to the sorceress; she could simply reach out and touch her friend's shoulder. Why, then, had Raven not heard her call? As she was about to ask the girl herself, Raven stirred.

In her hand was something Starfire had not seen before; a mask of some sort, white like the feathers of a dove. Raven stared at it, intently, as if expecting it to speak to her --- or as if it was _already_ talking to her. Starfire drew back quickly, realizing that the air around Raven had become unstable. It wavered, grew dark; the mask shimmered, a siren call to tempt the empath. The breath caught in Starfire's throat as her best friend was slowly consumed by the shadows of the air as she raised the mask to her face.

"_Raven_---!" the Tamaranean whispered, urgently.

The sorceress paused, turned her head to look at her unexpected visitor. The dark receded slightly, waiting; Raven's eyes were dull, her expression vacant, mesmerized. Starfire wasn't entirely sure if the empath could see her or not.

Raven's lips moved, mouthing something; Starfire strained to hear, felt her stomach clench when she did. Raven murmured softly, hoarse. "What I want…"

The Azarathean reached out a pale hand, thin fingers gently brushing Starfire's cheek, shifting a stray tress of hair back into place. Without thinking, Starfire found herself pressing Raven's hand nearer to her face, trying to make the chill against her warmth linger.

The sky exploded, let the rain come pouring down from the heavens; Starfire was drenched almost instantly, but Raven… the shadows maintained a force field which protected her from the elements. The thunder, however, seemed to snap her from her trance, because now Raven blinked, once, twice, slowly, eyes focusing, an expression of surprise growing upon her countenance.

The mask flashed, blinding Starfire with a burst of vermillion; she let go of Raven to raise both hands to her eyes, then felt the air rush out. The darkness that had surrounded Raven in her dazed state now coalesced, formed the very likeness of an evil Raven had known from birth --- Trigon's image glared, shattered, expanding with a force that propelled Starfire into the side of Titan Tower.

Starfire had no idea what she had seen, lying crumpled on the wet earth, winded and confused as the rain came down and didn't stop.

_A flash, a tremor, but Raven didn't say anything. She stood there, watching, smirking, dead inside like everything around her. Starfire called out, found herself ignored. She struggled against chains, prayed to X'Hal that Raven wasn't so lost, watched as Raven floated down, down… level with her face and still smiling. The empath, what was left of her, took the Tamaranean's chin in hand, pulled her close, hissed a threat._

_A flash, a cry, and Raven grimaced. She fell farther, while Starfire of Tamaran emerged. The alien breathed hard, free, exhausted, glowing with unmeasured power. The clouds parted, and she saw Raven. The sound of water filled her ears, then nothing at all._

_A flash, a whisper…_

I'm so sorry.

_A flash…_

Raven entered without a sound, a folded blanket over one arm, her cowl throwing a mask of shadow over half of her face. She carefully draped the blanket over the unconscious Tamaranean, hiding from sight the scores of entangled wires that crawled over the alien's golden skin as she lay supine on the ascetically white infirmary bed. She sat in a nearby chair, pulling it up close so that she could speak directly into Starfire's ear. Her hands trembled, pale and freezing; Raven ran those shaky hands over her haggard face, breathing a sigh. It was time she came to terms with all of it.

"Starfire," she started, her voice hoarse. "I'm sorry."

There was no reply, but then again, she hadn't expected one.

"I can't fight it much longer," she admitted to the princess' limp form. "I'm not that strong." She paused, tensing as the Tamaranean also sighed --- the rattle of a soul struggling to regain itself. Though Starfire did not know it herself, she was listening to all the empath had to say. Raven steeled herself to continue. "He told me he would give me everything I ever wanted. He told me I could love again, if I gave up. If I give myself to Him now, He'll spare you, and the others. He'll give you all a fighting chance." Her head fell, forbidden tears pricking hotly at the back of her eyes. "I don't think I have a choice."

The Azarathean halted, unsteadily rising from her seat. "I can't take it much longer! I can't hold it in, I can't… Starfire," she uttered, sweeping into a lonely corner and standing there, lost, insecure, sinking. "I'm scared." She leaned against the wall, wrapping her arms around herself, shuddering. "Once I let go, I'm afraid of what I'll do. If I let go, I'll never be the same. I don't know what will become of us, and the team."

"I don't want to leave you," Raven whispered urgently. "You all are the greatest friends a girl like me could ever have, you're more than I deserve. But if I don't leave, you all will be in danger. Once He changes me, the me you know can never come back."

Starfire sighed mournfully, Raven felt her heart leap, but the Tamaranean still did not stir. "I can't run anymore, and I can't hide. It won't matter where I go, He'll find me --- one way or another. He'll tear this world apart. He'll kill everyone to find me, but…" Raven paused, thinking deeply, contemplating. "… No, there's no stopping Him. The only place I could go is Azarath, but He'd find me there too, eventually. He can sense me no matter where I go; I'm tainted, Starfire. I'm exactly like Him. Even Azar thought if I could purge everything from me, I could be free of Him, but it's not that easy. It's never that easy…"

Raven turned and swept gracefully to Starfire's side, revealing the knotted desperation with which she spoke. "I'm afraid of Him," she confessed quietly. "But more than that, I'm afraid of myself."

She fell silent, watching the golden Tamaranean's sleeping face, emotionless but pure. If only she could be as innocent as that, Trigon would never find her…! Almost instantly, Raven felt a pang of guilt at such a thought; no amount of purity was enough to cover up the taint of blood, and it would have been wrong to use a friend in such a way. But… what other choice was there?

Raven slowly began to lean forward; abruptly, she stood up straight and turned, glaring. Cyborg held up a hand, meaning no intrusion, the other occupied with a tray containing several medical instruments. She hid in the shadows of her cloak as he neared, ready to check the meters and monitoring apparatus. He smiled faintly at the sorceress upon seeing the blanket covering Starfire, but said not a word, merely going about his business: refilling the IV drip, adjusting a dial or two, checking temperature… Raven gazed sadly at him. The guilt had returned with a nauseating vengeance.

Cyborg noticed the look, but mistook it for fatigue. "How long you been up here?"

"I was just leaving," she replied curtly, though her voice had since faded in its ability to accurately portray indifference.

"It's late," he stated, his tone staid but gentle. "You better get some sleep."

Raven nodded slightly, repeating, "I was just leaving."

Cyborg watched her go, sensing a sudden curiousness within Raven's behavior. His machine half dutifully recalled his experience with her _familial_ problems, though pathos would not let him settle on the fact that perhaps, just maybe, it was happening again.

----------------------------------------

Starfire awoke in a bed in Titan Tower's infirmary, staring up at the white ceiling. It took several moments to gather her thoughts, to realize she was covered with wires covered by a thick blanket. There appeared to be a one-horned horse embroidered on it --- Starfire recognized it as the coverlet she had bought while with Raven on one of the very few trips they had made to the mall together – that alone made the blanket special.

Great clomping steps signaled the presence of Cyborg; he entered as quietly as he could, to no avail. He looked grave, but brightened considerably upon seeing Starfire's eyes open and full of life once again. He issued a heavy sigh of relief, checked her vitals.

"You really had us worried," he murmured as he worked, "We thought we'd lost you. Didn't think a cold could _do_ that to a person."

"I'm just gonna assume you never saw any of the _Species_ movies, then," a green lemur added, emerging from his inconspicuous hideaway behind the big teen's shoulder.

Cyborg grunted, throwing a glare at the changeling. "This is supposed to be a _sterile_ environment, B.B."

"Uh huh?" Several long moments passed before Beast Boy realized the comment was a polite attempt to get him to leave. "Oh. Oh, come on, Cy! I just wanna make sure Star's okay!"

Cyborg sighed, shrugging (and shaking loose the changeling). "So far, so good."

Beast Boy pouted, on his feet and reformed, but patted Star's knee through the blanket. "Get better, okay?"

Starfire nodded, smiling softly, a little sad as the changeling left the room.

"Friend Cyborg?" He turned from checking the beeping machines connected to her upon hearing his name. "How long have I been asleep?"

The cybernetic teen thought for a moment before replying, "Several days… Almost a whole damn week." Then, he chuckled. "It's been driving Robin up the wall to see you here like this," he explained, gesturing to the score of wires that monitored the vitals of her alien constitution.

Starfire sat up to examine the damage to herself, felt a rush of heat in her head. She winced, put a hand to her forehead; she was surprised to find bandages. She looked at Cyborg, eyes voicing the question for her.

He smiled uneasily, shrugging again. "Concussion."

She nodded gently, and then resumed checking herself. Finding no further surprises, she lay back down, staring at the ceiling. She thought of something, however.

"Cyborg?" She asked, again making him turn. "Did Raven come back?"

He looked a little surprised, but nodded. "Yeah. She was the one that brought you _that_," he pointed at the blanket.

Starfire sat up promptly, despite the clear presence of vertigo that made the room spin uncontrollably. "Where is she?" she demanded.

Cyborg gently eased her back down. "Whoa, not so fast. We need to make sure you're okay, first."

The Tamaranean had not the strength to argue with him. She did as he said; though she knew she could not relax until she had seen Raven with her own two eyes.

----------------------------------------

As expected, Robin was the first to pay a visit; Starfire felt grateful for his presence, the unwavering stability he provided day in, day out and he seemed so greatly relieved at her recovery that she hadn't the heart to ask him about Raven.

She smiled, brightened as he did. She had admitted to herself once that she loved him dearly and it was hard not to let her pure and gentle nature slip out of the hold Raven had taught her to keep; she tended to say silly, unimportant things when she did and this was certainly not the time for that sort of thing. But Raven – she was something else entirely. Starfire had learned so many amazing things since they'd met, and they'd shared so much in the blended silence of their meditations. She saw so many similarities between themselves, and equally as many differences, but most of all she felt that---

"—that Raven healed the worst of it. I thought we'd lost you for sure."

Starfire snapped to attention. What had he said about---?

"You mean everything to us, Starfire. I can't imagine the team without you."

Starfire suddenly felt guilty; she'd allowed her mind to wander from Robin's heartfelt speech! She mentally cursed herself --- he was sweet enough to tell her, so how could she not pay attention! How could she even consider herself worthy of the thought he was giving her now?

Robin looked immensely surprised, and not a little confused, when she tearfully apologized. She grasped his hand, held it tight, and cried like a child; he didn't complain, said not a word, but simply stayed near as she released her fears and anxiety through a stream of hot tears.

Movement stirred them both from distant reveries contained within their shared warmth. Starfire heard Robin murmur Raven's name, then opened her eyes, curious.

True to his utterance, the empath stood at the doorway, stunned, her cheeks flaring red as she quickly bowed to hide it. She said but one thing, quickly and hoarsely, "I'll come back later," before she backed away and turned to flee down the hall to X'Hal only knew where.

Robin disengaged Starfire from his arm to quickly tend to an expensive-looking machine that had started to give off smoke; Starfire sucked in a yelp as one of the wires running across her lap gave off a few sparks.

Once he'd saved the machine from almost certain magic-induced destruction, he returned to Starfire's side; he gave her his patented look of concern. "You okay?"

Starfire nodded quickly, drying her tears with the back of her hand. She sniffled a bit to clear her head; Robin examined her teary face, smiled quaintly, patted her shoulder and left. She watched him go, wondering. She waited for the longest time --- an eternity that lasted some six whole minutes --- before she heard footsteps, quiet and reserved as they nervously approached.

Raven's cloaked and oddly shadowed form appeared at the door, Robin close behind, and from there she crept stoically to Starfire's bedside and stood, saying not a word. Robin's voice made her turn, "I'll give you two some time alone." He left with a smile from the entry, that obscure method of his working its magic as Raven pulled down her cowl.

Starfire was surprised at the empath's haggard form; she looked downright drained, from the darkness in her eyes to the unusual slump with which she carried herself. Starfire could swear Raven had lost weight --- her cheekbones seemed more prominent, the shadows beneath her eyes longer.

"How do you feel?" the Azarathean asked, her voice so indistinct Starfire had to strain to hear it.

The Tamaranean's brows furrowed, her deep emerald eyes even more deeply concerned. "I could very well ask you the same question, friend Raven."

Raven sighed, not having the strength to argue. "How's your head?"

Starfire lowered to gaze to stare at her hands. "It is not very bad, but it is not without ache."

"Here," the empath murmured, raising a hand and placing it against Starfire's warm cheek. Instantly, the dull throb that had plagued her since she'd awoken was gone, coursing instead through the veins of Raven's inmost soul to be filtered away. But with the pain, consciousness followed.

Starfire grabbed for Raven before the sorceress could fall, pulling her up easily into strong Tamaranean arms. The empath lay prostrate and cradled by the warmth of an alien's kindness; Starfire carefully maneuvered Raven's light form, wrapped her up in the coverlet and held the sorceress as she recovered from her swoon.

_She was used to darkness; it was inescapable, after all, woven into the life-giving blackness of her very soul. She walked an endless road, littered with temptation, sin and sickness, death and the royalty of being the one to inflict it --- her hereditary right to bring pain and revel in it._

_A flash, a tremor, and there she stood, in the halls of Titan Tower. Her shadow cast itself large upon the wall, following her every movement. She walked the metal walkway she knew so well that she could pass through it with her eyes shut and hands bound. She walked by familiar doors; entrances to familiar places: the weight room, Robin's room, Starfire's room, _her_ room..._

_A sound made her jump, even in a dreamlike state such as this, preparing the darkness within her, readying her defenses. The sound continued, high and familiar and strangely enraging._

_Raven slowed her gait as she neared Beast Boy's room. It was his alarm clock, that stupid hunk of plastic he'd _insisted_ on buying. She let out a low sigh, pushing open his door, looking all about. She called his name. When she heard no reply, she took a careful step inward. She warned him aloud, gave voice to her vexation, hoping for one of his sadly misplaced "your face" jokes, not for amusement, of course, but for the comfort of knowing she wasn't alone here._

_No such luck occurred, and so she took another few steps forward. She called out again, futilely, as she reached out to turn off the alarm. Her shadow loomed over her, strangely ominous in the way it stooped, as if it were waiting, as if it could leap down and sweep absolutely everything up into its grasp and hold it there until it rotted at the first wrong gesture she made. All it needed, she could plainly see, was a catalyst._

_A flash, a cry; Raven took her hand back, refusing to touch the clock. She was smart enough to know an omen when she saw one, and this, most definitely, was just that. She thanked Azar for this lucidity; she must have saved herself quite the nightmare!_

_An orange hand tapped the Snooze button, as cheerfully as could be. An equally as orange face, flushed with an unearthly vigor for life, turned to regard her, smiling like a fool._

Hello, Raven! _she said. _Are you well? _she said._

_Raven felt her stomach clench with such a rage, with such an inhuman fear that she almost --- almost --- felt the need to scream. Deeper within --- so deep down Azar herself would have found it impossible to reach --- Raven felt an absurd need to laugh._

_A flash, a whisper, and Starfire giggled. Raven furrowed her eyebrows, confused. She asked the alien what was so funny..._ You,_ Starfire answered,_ And him,_ the alien added, in such a horribly candid way that the need to laugh jarred, just a little, within her chest._

_Raven looked up, trying to see what the Tamaranean would have meant by "him." Of course she meant the shadow --- the shadow that grinned, that never failed to upset her world and turn it on its head._ _The shadow who no longer sat on the wall._

_Raven cursed, whirling to face the alien, glowering terribly at absolutely nothing, for the room she now faced was just that._

_Empty._

_A flash… Nothing but the mirror, reflecting nothing but Raven. To her surprise, the mask of portents past was ominously absent. But her image fell to its knees, arm dramatically draped over her eyes --- Raven looked away from her doppelganger and down at herself, cloaked in the grim blacks and reds of someone sinister; she brought her hand to her face, felt the smooth ivory of the mask that came to her in dreams. She placed a hand against the mirror, cursed as her image gazed back with such pathetic, darkened eyes... and behind her image, Starfire entered with arms outreaching, crying out, rushing forward…_

_And there the dream ended..._

And there the dream ended.

Raven opened her eyes, only to see the concerned golden face, full ruddy tresses wrapped and contained by stark white bandages; exuberant life restrained by cruel, pale fingers. Starfire's shining green and emerald eyes looked on as Raven regained conscious and conscience, forcing herself to let go as the empath untangled herself and pulled away to settle on her feet.

Raven, shaken from within only, coolly smoothed her robes and thanked Starfire politely in the way that "thank you" usually meant "I didn't really need your help." The Tamaranean smiled a little, feeling something in her chest sink some at the sudden manifestation of an attitude. She wondered what made had Raven so defensive; surely the boys were not teasing her? Then again, Raven had been difficult a week ago; perhaps it was all for the same reason.

"Raven," Starfire began, contemplating deeply on whether to pull the empath closer or to leave her be. "Please, tell me, what is the matter?"

The request passed through the Azarathean, effectively stopping her in her tracks; in the silence, Raven heard her heart beat and she wondered if Starfire could hear it, too. She had said it once, but she could not bring herself to say it again; she didn't know what drove her to answer as she did, but the lies flowed easier now and she could not stop it, nor after would she be able to take it back. "I'm leaving the Titans."

Starfire's stunned hush drilled into Raven's mind; without looking, she could almost _see_ the Tamaranean's wide, deer-like eyes boring holes into her back, both pleading and concerned and terrified all at once; but the empath, without waiting for an answer, quickly swept out of the room.

----------------------------------------

The next morning Starfire awoke sick both in body and heart. Her dreams had been uneasy, to say the least; just thinking about them sent a tremor through her stomach. An interminable ache had settled on her soul, knowing what she knew of Raven and still willing to just let her _leave_.

Cyborg tended to her as best he could, staying by her side even though Robin and Beast Boy and the three from Titans East (who had opted to remain as auxiliary in light of Starfire's _condition_) went out to keep city watch. The only difference in them that Starfire could see, during the odd visit they sporadically kept, was that everyone had grown tense, as if they were waiting for something to happen.

Unlike them, Starfire _knew_ something was going to happen, _needed_ to happen. Her only worries were when, where, and Raven. How could the empath not trust her? It was not like Raven to simply flee from her problems --- or was it? Starfire had never actually seen the sorceress deal with her more familial problems; in all other aspects, Raven dealt forthwith when a dilemma arose in the group or with a villain, and in solving them she was nearly always flawless. But when it came to her father, that monster Trigon, Starfire came to grasp that Raven had no real answer, no plan of action, and no hope.

It tore Starfire apart to think that Raven could have lost faith in herself, and it positively horrified her that Raven would be _alone_ in her hour of need.

Hardening her resolve, the Tamaranean raised herself on her elbows, gathering all her energy to stand. She stumbled to the window, machinery groaning and crying in shrill voices as she tore herself from its cold grasp, and ripped the blinds from the wall. There was no light, for there was no sun; the sky was overcast with thick, smog-like layers of cloud through which no ray of X'Hal's hope could shine through. Starfire collapsed painfully to her knees and breathed hard for several moments, heaving up the broth Cyborg had fed her for lunch.

The half-machine thundered into the room, halting sharply and letting out a long sigh of relief. He bent over her shuddering form and held back her hair, bringing over a bucket with a free hand. He didn't say a word, and though she couldn't see his face from her position, she assumed—no, she could _feel_ it to be filled with an utmost concern and paternal love. She may not have been an empath as Raven was, but she knew kindness.

Cyborg helped to reorient her, cleaned her up, placing her back on the medical bed and giving her a wet cloth for her hot forehead and a glass of water. She downed the water and lay back to rest as Cyborg retrieved a mop with which to clean the floor.

Starfire covered her eyes, realizing just how stupid her course of action had been and feeling guilty for having made him worry. She apologized a countless number of times to him as he cleaned, but each time he merely replied with a soft "That's okay." She explained -- _justified_ -- her need of sunlight, and he said, "I know. That's okay." She apologized again and again, to him and to Titans that weren't even present.

Cyborg carefully disposed of the mess into a lidded waste bin labeled 'biohazard;' when he'd finished, he turned to Starfire with a gentle eye and smiled faintly. She took great notice of how tired he looked, and found herself surprised that he wasn't angry with her in the least. He shook his head, only relief in his voice. "It's okay, Star. I know how you feel. You wanna get out there and help, I know you do, but you're not gonna be any good, to Rob _or_ Raven, if you don't heal."

Starfire nodded, lowering her eyes to the floor in a shame unbefitting of her stature. Cyborg saw the look and lifted her chin with an immense metal finger that was surprisingly tender in its movement. "Hey, look at me. It's alright. You're not a burden, okay? And this doesn't make you weak, either. Even the best of us gotta take a minute to rest, right? 'Cept Rob, of course --- but we all know he's a robot. Now, gimme a big smile." His smile outshined hers, which was not particularly difficult, as Starfire could manage only the meekest of expressions at a time when her heart felt ready to burst. It seemed to please him nonetheless. "That's my girl. Get some sleep, okay?"

As she slept, Starfire dreamed a terrible thing:

She dreamt that the pavement was hard beneath her feet and the air was frozen, though it flowed like wine around her and she almost felt that she was swimming in it. The night was strangely empty, though the air was full of sounds: a dog barking in the distance, the cold brush of wind across the faces of buildings, a car alarm wailing several city blocks away. They made her uneasy, made the blood run hot in her veins though her skin felt taut and icy. A quiver started up in her back, moving quickly between her stomach and spine.

She dreamt that she walked until she came to a subway entrance, where she descended the steps into a cavernous tunnel, lit by dimly flickering fluorescent bulbs. The walls were grimy and yellowed by smoke, posters peeling, drooping sadly to the ground. Starfire jumped at the sound of a whistle and roar of the oncoming train.

She dreamt that the subway train pulled to a slow stop at the boarding platform. For a long while, Starfire merely stared, as the doors did not open. She saw, however, that the train was mostly empty, save for two lonely people. One was cloaked in black, one in white; curiously, both looked like Raven. They sat across from each other, staring into nothing; Starfire whispered a name.

She dreamt that one of the figures, the one in white, turned to her. The one in black said something sharp, a harsh father to a frightened daughter, though Starfire could not make out what, and the Raven in white quickly looked away.

She dreamt that she blinked, and suddenly Starfire could see that the Raven in black wore a mask – a ghostly white visage that reminded her of a skull – that covered only half her face. Her smile completed the mask, unnatural as it was, haunting, chuckling in that dark space in the back of her mind. The Raven in white sat in chains, with no emotion on her face at all.

She dreamt that when she opened her eyes, the train was gone, roaring back through the tunnel to X'Hal only knew where. Without another word, Starfire trudged back up into the cold night air of Jump City, into the newly started downpour.

She dreamt… she knew not of what. Rain, or tears, or blood, trickled down her flushed, benumbed cheeks, and there the dream ended.

----------------------------------------

The entire group gathered and congratulated Starfire on her extraordinary recovery the day Cyborg pronounced her fit to fight, four weeks from the day she'd seen Raven on that fateful, rainy day, and one from the day Raven had left the group to seek solitude.

Somewhere in the excitement, she'd received hugs and more than enough pats on the back; somehow, she half-expected to see Raven part the group and give her that _indeed _sort of look that she extended only on special occasions.

She didn't, and it left Starfire standing alone among her friends, nursing the little hole that had grown in her heart since the empath's departure. She imagined that things could get no worse, praying to X'Hal that the sorceress would be alright.

Robin approached her shortly; a mere few minutes after leaving Cyborg's infirmary, he came to her with a grim but sincere concern lingering in his face, though how she could tell through the mask, no one would ever know for sure. He slid an arm around her shoulders, leading her towards the spiral staircase that led to the roof.

The air was cool and the ground was slick, but the night was calm though dark clouds billowed up above, still threatening to unleash yet another downpour. Starfire briefly wondered if it were connected to Raven in any way; it must have been, for the weather had started the night Starfire first realized Raven had begun changing.

The Boy Wonder gave a sigh, drawing Starfire's curious, wide-eyed attention. He took a moment to organize his thoughts; a second, more prolonged sigh signaled his readiness to begin. "Starfire," he started, tentatively, as though he still were unsure of his subject. "I want you to tell me about what's been going on with Raven."

Starfire felt her mouth run dry; she shook her head, slowly at first, then with sudden vigor. She halted, stumbling over her English, "P-please forgive me, Robin, but I-I do not know! If I did, I would tell you, I swear on it!"

Robin raised an eyebrow. "Calm down," he told her quietly. "I'm not grilling you; I just need to know why Raven left. You're the only one she talks to, so I thought I'd ask."

The Tamaranean princess lowered her head, "If I had known why, I would have done more to help her." She moved a foot through the standing water collecting in a puddle near her, watching it ripple and spread farther than before. "I would not have let her leave."

"I know," he replied. "You're a good friend."

"I am not," Starfire countered with a surprising viciousness. "A good friend would have not let her go. A good friend would have done everything in her power to help."

Robin did not answer, seeing the conversation quickly attempting to turn against them; his eyes moved to stare at an illuminated city across the bay. "Why would she go?" he asked, to Starfire and to the vast landscape. "Where would she go?"

Starfire lifted her hands, helplessly. "I do not know," she moaned miserably, "She is worried, she might do anything. She might go anywhere!"

Robin shrugged, nodding calmly. "She wants to be alone."

"She should not be!" Starfire snapped, adding, "She should remain where I can be of assistance. Her father cannot make her betr---" Starfire strangled the word, forcing it back into her throat with a tiny squeak of terror, clapping an orange hand over her mouth. She looked at the Boy Wonder with wide eyes, aghast at her own loquaciousness.

The Batman's former apprentice looked relatively pleased, though it faded back into his usual cryptic solemnity. "You were saying?"

"I promised," Starfire responded immediately, from behind her hand.

"I need to know," Robin replied softly. "Why would Raven betray us?"

"She would never!" Starfire retorted angrily, hands flying, clenched, to her sides. "Trigon---!" The hands flew back to her mouth as she forced the information to stay there. She shot an indignant glare at the boy, for being so good at this game, for making her tell him things she'd all but sworn never to repeat.

"Trigon?" Robin echoed. "Raven is scared of him?"

Starfire grit her teeth, tightening her grip on her motor-mouth as she stared hard at the Boy Wonder. She would not speak – he could not make her!

"Trigon is her father," Robin confirmed, his eyes, hidden behind the white film of his mask, searching her face. "And he's controlling her?" Starfire squeezed her eyes shut. "She left because she's worried he'll force her to betray us?" Starfire shrank to the stubbled roof concrete, squatting, shaking, and holding her breath. "Don't tell me – he's plotting to take over the world, and Raven is the key to his victory? Or does the guy just have an obsession with control and a taste for vengeance? He's bitter that she's able to defy him, and Raven left because she feels her defenses are being weakened and she doesn't want to endanger the team?" He leaned over, peering down at the top of the alien princess' ruffled head. "Am I getting warmer?"

Starfire sprang to her feet, nearly hitting his head with her own, wailing, "You are not supposed to know that!"

Robin smiled gently. "Which part?"

"Any of it!" She swept away from him, clasping her hands over her head, "Oh! I am a horrible friend!" The alien trotted in circles, muttering to herself sharply in Tamaranean.

The Boy Wonder gestured for her to calm down, catching her in mid-circle, placing his hands on her tall shoulders and turning her to face him; his smile was warm. "If it makes you feel any better, you didn't tell me. I guessed."

"You are a very good guesser," Starfire ceded despondently.

He chuckled, and then nodded towards the door leading back into the Tower. "It's what I do. Shall we?"

Starfire nodded reluctantly, allowing him to lead her, her mind unconsciously slipping through a list of a thousand and one possibilities; now that Robin knew, did he understand? Would he treat Raven differently, now that he knew of her tenuous connection to stability? – no, probably not. Robin was exceptional at these matters, and definitely the most tactful of the Teen Titans, next to Raven. Oh, but Raven! What of the empath? What would become of her, if Trigon had really infiltrated her defenses? – oh, the horror!

Starfire returned to her room, while Robin to the commons; she sat on her bed, listening as the soft pitter-pat of raindrops began falling against the giant window. She swung her legs onto the divan, reclining with her shoes on the pillow and head dangling off the end of her mattress. The Tamaranean let out a sigh, staring at the ceiling, closing her brilliantly emerald eyes as she contemplated carefully. When she reopened those sparkling eyes, she saw a shadow flicker across the wall --- she lifted her head to glance out the window to see what had cast such a silhouette. A great black thing floated there, eyes glowing red as crackling flames, staring fixedly, terribly. Starfire screamed, flailing out both hands and releasing a huge blast of energy that blew straight through the window, leaving a gaping hole in the steel-reinforced glass, dribbles of liquid metal trickling down and sizzling in the rain as a cloud of dust and drywall wafted into the wet air.

Starfire rolled off her bed, leaping to her feet, felt her steps falter, suffering from that giant expenditure of energy, but stared, horror-struck, at an empty sky. She shuffled near to the yawning mouth she'd created, feeling the cool spatter of rain against the flushed skin of her face. The alien princess stepped away from the hole, placing a hand to her heart and feeling it beating fast; she breathed, in and out, her mantra of peace and tranquility echoing in her mind. She looked around the room for any sign of more eyes; she paused once she thought was sure, and checked beneath the bed --- just in case! One hand glowed dangerously as the other cautiously lifted the bed skirt --- the luminescent lime green light of her Starbolt revealed nothing of suspect under her place of rest, so she allowed the bolt to fade from her hand as she got to her feet, reassured.

A shadow darkened the massive opening in her window for a moment; Starfire felt her heart skip a beat as she whirled, another bolt instantly at hand. It faded once she realized there was nothing there --- Starfire pivoted, both hands flaming, when something pounded violently at her door.

"Starfire!" Robin yelled, "Starfire!"

The Tamaranean rushed to the door, slamming a golden hand onto the pad that opened it; the door slid open with a cool electric sigh, revealing a frazzled-looking team of Titans.

"Starfire," Robin started, his usual air of control distorted by anxiety. "Are you alright?"

The alien nodded, eyes wide, "I am!"

Cyborg's face drained of color as he pointed past Starfire, at the window --- or the lack thereof. "WHAT THE---!"

"Dude," Beast Boy bleated, "First the ceiling, then Raven's door, now this!"

The ginger-haired archer raised a sly eyebrow. "Was this a provoked attack, or do you just like the sound of things breaking?"

"I have seen it!" Starfire stammered, pointing frantically at the decimated wall. "A shadow --- the _phantom_ was there ---out there!--- just a moment ago!"

Beast Boy let out a seal's bark, clapping his fins together before morphing into a cat to rub against the alien's legs, doing a prancing victory dance as a white-tailed buck, all while warbling triumphantly, "I knew it! I knew it! I knew it all along!"

"Are you sure?" Robin asked, briefly shooting a glare at the changeling, so that he might realize that the question was not meant for him.

"Most positively!" Starfire replied firmly, "It looked like---" But she did not finish. Starfire stopped her sentence and did not say anything more; with the immediate fear having subsided, she knew what she had seen. Blind horror had a face, the screaming white of skin palled by misery, eyes ablaze with hellfire, set upon a crooked smile; terror had a name, bestowed upon her in the cradle of Azarath all those years ago, spoken in tones of fear, they called her Raven. If there had been time, Starfire would have cried.

The impromptu Teen Titans all snapped to attention when the alarm wailed, red flashing lights cutting short their discussion and sending them scattering towards the exit. Cyborg checked the master computer, declaring to the team that the alarm had been triggered by a store on Fifth. Starfire felt a sudden clench in her stomach, but followed nevertheless, grateful for the opportunity to finally do something of importance.

Robin was shouting orders, many of which Starfire failed to comprehend, lost in the jumble of her own thoughts. The only thing to reach her was the familiar battle cry, "Titans, go!" to which those Titans without the gift of flight piled into the T-Car, which sprouted jet skis and propelled itself across the bay and towards the commotion in the city.

Starfire took to the dark skies, Beast Boy soaring at her side as an emerald falcon. It looked as if it were night time, though there seemed to be no proof, as the sky was smothered with black, rolling clouds, through which no sign of night or day could pass. She felt the pang of pain that came with the absence of the sun; her energy stores would not last as long in these awful conditions, especially if there was need of her Starbolts.

The streets were quiet; not a soul stirred in the dead silence. Each and every one of the Titans felt uneasy as they traced the signal inland to the store. Aqualad stayed to patrol the coast, but even he had sensed the ghastly change in the air; Beast Boy most of all, sniffing and whining as a bloodhound, wandering in a vague circle like a raindog for lack of a trail.

They found a music shop, violins and its respective accessories lining the walls, only slightly array; the shop owner stood outside the door, mourning the shattered front window. Robin handled the citizen's story, calming the poor man enough to get a vague description of the culprit: a hooded figure covered in shadow. He explained how the figure had stopped in front of the store, speaking to no one but the glass. He claimed to have asked the stranger if they'd required assistance, and the only reason he'd noticed the shadows at all was because they'd flared up into a great black bird-shape --- at which point the window had exploded. The figure disappeared afterward – like a shadow itself, it had just puffed away. Starfire interrupted then, fervently asking if the figure he'd seen had been a girl.

As this was going on, Cyborg elbowed Speedy urgently; the archer turned to him quizzically, and the half-machine gestured to a darkened alley a short ways ahead. He gave a nod, nocked an arrow and fired in one swift movement. A flare of blinding white light burst from the phosphorous arrow as it shattered against the wall, spattering long streaks of glowing powder across the brick surface to light the way. A flutter of shadow alerted the team, and they sprang to action; Robin shouted an order of caution, but Starfire, however, shot towards the figure and into the alley before the rest could take a step.

She skid to a stop after touching down, coming face to face with a ghostly pale countenance that was despicably familiar. Raven's emaciated form glowed eerily in the dim light from the wall, and her unnatural smile was not at all comforting.

"Starfire!" Robin called, rushing forward into the alley, the team at his heels.

A wall of black energy repelled them, sending Starfire hurtling away; Beast Boy morphed smartly into a gorilla, running forward to catch the reeling alien. Her traveling force knocked him clean off his feet, forcing him back into human form as they landed, dazed, on the hard asphalt.

Cyborg let loose a decibel blast, shaking the very foundation of the building, though the shadow merely wavered a moment, like a dying flame, and sank into the ground. He squinted, his eye scanning the darkness for any sign of life, while Robin tended to his bewildered team. Speedy and Hot Shot recovered almost instantly, being only mostly confused, though he found Beast Boy somewhat conscious, having taken most of the Tamaranean's thrown force. They helped the green mutant to his feet, while Starfire apologized vaguely through a tight throat, distraught by the empath's unexpected behavior. Something cold squirmed beneath her stomach, setting an icy shiver up her spine and nearly tearing a hard sob from her throat. She clapped a hand to her mouth, surprised by her reaction; there had been something about the sorceress, hidden within that mask of an expression…

Cyborg interrupted with an announcement: "I've got a signal on Raven."

All at once, as if on cue, the official handheld, custom designed communicators possessed by each of the Titans began to beep.

They paused to check, and it was Robin who steadied an ominous glance at the half-machine. "I think we do, too."

Cyborg frowned, staring at the image being transferred from the communicator of the wayward Teen Titan. Speedy cocked an eyebrow, "Please tell me that's not a chandelier."

"Why not?"

The archer shrugged nonchalantly. "I went to an opera once," he stated, calmly, before throwing a fierce look at the grinning Hot Spot. "_Yes_ – and things don't end well when chandeliers get involved."

Beast Boy shook his head, attempting to clear it but finding it just as messy as he'd left it – no matter, he was used to it. "Why's that?"

Speedy ran a hand over the clean shaven fuzz of his scalp, "One word: gravity."

Beast Boy considered this, nodding philosophically. After a moment, his solemnity broke and he grinned playfully at the archer. "Dude, _you_? At an _opera_? How dorky--"

Before the changeling could finish, Speedy lunged for his throat, but managed to grasp only at feathers as a pea green woodpecker fluttered out of reach and onto Cyborg's head. The young man merely grunted, grabbing Speedy by the shoulder and holding him back. "Cut it out, you two," he told them gravely. "We've got work to do."

A strangled sob drew their attention; Starfire, standing quite still, viciously restrained herself from making another sound, and turned towards the group with a look of anger. It had occurred to her what she had seen in the empath's face: the soulful, agonizing glimmer of submission. "How can you jest at such misfortune? We must help Raven!" She turned to the team's leader, "Friend Robin! Surely you agree?"

"Of course I do," The Boy Wonder conceded, "And I think I know where we need to go." He plucked a sheet of metal from his utility belt, tapping a few key buttons to pull up a map. He showed it to his team, pointing at a minor cross-section, "At the corner of J'onzz and Ninth, there's an old theater that has this kind of chandelier hanging in the lobby."

Beast Boy shifted back into his human form, still clinging to Cyborg's shoulders, well away from Speedy. "What, you gonna tell me you went to the opera with the Batman?"

Robin's smile could only be described as unquestionably smug. "Yes."

"Oh," the changeling piped, blinking. "Rock on."

Starfire was the first at the darkened doors, and then Beast Boy, who gaped at the massive oaken frame, carved ornately and absolutely beautiful. Starfire ran a hand down the wood, running fingers through the sanded crevices of intricate curves, her face set into an expression that did not fit her in the least.

The sign on the door informed them that the theater was closed until nine the next day, though there seemed to be no argument that the Tamaranean needed to be in that building _now_. Beast Boy winced at the sound of one of the heavy wooden doors snapping off its hinges like a toothpick; Starfire lifted the door above her head, triumphant but sad, and threw it to the side like a piece of plywood. She entered the shadowed path without a sound, without even a single glance at the changeling.

Speedy, Hot Spot and Robin and finally Cyborg roared onto the scene on a squeal of tires, horrified at the desecration committed; Beast Boy weakly motioned towards the entrance, still dumbfounded by a reasonable amount of shock. Cyborg's shoulder light popped on and Robin led the way inside.

They could see the emerald glow of held Starbolts, revealing beneath its strange, soft glow Starfire's silhouette. She moved quietly across the black lobby, towards the halls leading into the aisle seats. She came to a stop near the entrance to the auditorium, turning and gazing back at the silhouette of the team; Hot Spot gave off a warm orange glow as he entered, intending to follow Starfire, but stopping to examine the faint blue light thrown from the screen of Raven's communicator.

Robin called out for Starfire to stop, and then he himself paused. Lights flared to life in every direction, blinding the Teen Titans for a split-second, captured utterly off-guard. Cyborg saw the shadow move above them, saw it crawl along the ceiling, but everyone heard the agonized cry, the wicked, distorted laugh that gouged pits of fear into their hearts. "Look out!" The teenaged half-machine bellowed as he gathered up the two mostly mortal Titans and leaped out of the way. Hot Spot propelled himself to one side with a burst of flame that scorched the carpet, and a dazed Beast Boy was tackled from behind by the golden Tamaranean; she skid to a stop on the thin carpet on the other side of the room as a gargantuan gilded iron spider crashed to the ground, glass shattering around them as black energy shifted erratically, only to settle back into the shivering, dark-eyed Raven standing atop the balcony stairs.

They could hear the dying beep of Raven's communicator, that ominous clue that had led them to this place, impaled and crushed beneath a massive ton of welded metal.

"I knew it!" Speedy howled, scrambling out of the cybernetic teen's grasp. "Chandeliers are nothing but trouble!" He pointed accusingly at the hulking carcass of the giant light fixture, "You see!"

Cyborg ignored him, dropped the rest of his cargo and stood, glaring up at Raven's twisted shade. At the sound of his metal arm's clicking transformation, Starfire drove him to the floor, screaming an order in a passionate burst of Tamaranean. He stared at her towering form, fists blazing; he saw the warrior within her banging against its cage and realized that she meant this to be her fight. He looked to Robin and saw the same light of epiphany in his eyes. The decibel gun clicked back into his arm, and the absolute ruthlessness in Starfire's eyes faded, as did the light from her hands; she apologized softly in her native tongue before turning to face Raven.

The alien princess floated off her feet, up and up until she was at eye level with the empath. Whatever had taken hold of the Azarathean had not quite conquered her and Starfire found herself wordlessly congratulating the sorceress --- she had not yet given in totally to darker forces. For a moment, Starfire recalled the dreams she'd had; she could have sworn that White Raven flickered still in the dying light of those eyes.

If only she could get through to that Raven!

"My friend," Starfire began, when English had returned to her. "Please, Raven, why must you do this?"

An unnatural smile crept onto the empath's features, but fled as quickly as it had come. She backed through the open door behind her, darkness engulfing her as she hovered off the balcony, receding back and downwards until she landed on the stage, where one by one the stage lights lit themselves. Starfire followed without much thought, trusting herself to the tiny spark of good she had seen moments before. The rest of the Titans barreled through the doors and down the long aisles; they halted at the front row. Robin and Speedy clambered into the orchestra pit; Speedy loaded his bow while the Boy Wonder readied a freeze disk, and they waited.

"Raven," Starfire implored again, her voice quivering. "Why?"

"I," the empath rasped; her voice resounded grandly as if she had been shouting. However, she fell into silence, listening to the acoustic boom echoing through the auditorium. "Between the emotion," she started again, "And the response, falls the Shadow." It echoed far, and she listened; when it had faded, she turned her eyes to Starfire, beseeching. "Life is very long," she said, quietly, in a desolate voice.

"Life is beautiful," Starfire answered, unsure of whether she was supposed to or not. "It is what you make it," she articulated carefully. "You and Robin taught me that."

A miserable smile came to Raven's lips; her voice quavered as she recited from memory a thing from long ago: "Between the desire," she broke eye contact with the Tamaranean. "And the spasm," Raven murmured, her cheeks flushing. "Between the potency, and the existence," she continued, renewing the link she'd broken, "Between the essence, and the descent, falls the Shadow."

Starfire retained a simply quizzical expression mixed with concern. "I do not understand, Raven," she replied, in a subdued voice. "I would if I could, but there is so much I have yet to learn…" She attempted to step forward, but seeing Raven wince at the movement made her retreat a pace instead. It surprised her to see the empath's expression harden.

"For thine is my Kingdom," Raven answered, finitely, unabashedly. Her dark eyes took on that iniquitous gleam; her cloak moved to a chimera wind.

"Raven?" Starfire asked, a sudden fear beginning to sprout and take root at the pit of her stomach. "What do you mean? Of what Kingdom do you speak?"

"For thine," Raven repeated, but the sharpness of her features softened suddenly. She was herself again. "Life is," she said, then hesitated. "For thine is," she started again, pausing purposefully once more.

"I do not know what you mean," Starfire replied, "But know, Raven, I am here for you---" She looked shocked when the empath moved swiftly forward, very near, face-to-face, frosty fingers grasping at warmer hands, and Starfire could see the strain that the Azarathean had gone through in keeping herself together, keeping herself rational enough to tear her mental self apart for this final, vital message. Without warning, Raven leaned forward, standing on her toes half a foot above the ground to deliver a last offering from a dying friend: her lips brushed gently against the golden Tamaranean's, then harder, fiercer, protective, jealous, and then soft, defenseless once more --- Starfire felt the spark of some magic force as they parted, a darkness furious and horrible having passed between them in that single instant, and an electric chill swept down her spine. She had no words, in either of her languages, to speak or any adequate enough to express what now boiled over in the pit of her stomach.

The rest of the Titans, standing in the front row, stared with disbelieving eyes and open mouths. For a moment, time had stopped, magically it had lingered and dwelled on a miraculous occurrence; for a moment, the Teen Titans lowered their weapons and their guard, blinking vacantly as the empath rushed away, to the back of the stage away from the only genuine display of affection she'd ever ventured, in life or in dreams.

"This is the way the world ends," Raven continued suddenly, her demeanor shifting rapidly, as if the chains on the unholy titan within had finally shattered. "This is the way the world ends," she repeated. Weapons resumed their places, though the formerly aggressive aspects could no longer take shape, replaced instead by compassion, having seen the flickering humanity in their demonic partner.

"Raven, do not say such things!" Starfire reprimanded, a bit more harshly than she meant to, her own cheeks hot with the awkwardness of a previously nonexistent sentiment. "How can you believe in such foolish notions? You are stronger than that, I know you are! You _have_ the ability to defend yourself, so why will you not!"

The sad look returned, the evil ebbing if only for a moment. "This is the way the world ends."

On all sides, doors creaked shut, pushed by the burgeoning chimera gale, sealing them within a giant wooden sepulcher. Robin hurled the disk, but Starfire back-handed a Starbolt into its path; the disk burst into a futile flare of ice, falling staggeringly short of its target. She could not, however, stop Speedy from letting his arrow fly, whizzing straight and true --- into nothing. It passed into Raven's chest and did not emerge out the other side. Her cloak fluttered slightly, she seemed to go limp, and suddenly the Teen Titans felt the icy palm of fear stiffen the air around them.

As if they had witnessed it occur in slow motion, they saw this: Raven's cloak flew open, revealing nothing within it, only a gaping hole where Raven's body should have been. The wind rushing through the auditorium changed its course, turning and flowing into the empath, and taking anything it could with it. It tore chairs from their bolts out of the aisles, tossing them through the air like toys before disappearing into Raven; gouges appeared in walls where ornamental lamps had been ripped away. The sorceress had left the ground, floating on the same wind that now sped through the building. The Teen Titans grabbed for anything they could, desperately clinging to the building's foundation as the velocity of the torrent increased; Beast Boy morphed into a tyrannosaurus, but even in a form so large, he could not keep his feet on the ground. The changeling shifted back and forth between the forms of quick-moving birds, to heavier animals like rhinos and elephants, but nothing helped. He finally grabbed at a chair, but as he did, it broke from its base, smashing into him and launching him towards the massive black hole. Cyborg leaped, clutching for Beast Boy's feet; he managed to grab hold of one of the mutant's shoes, but his own feet were already too far off the floor for him to be of any use. He ejected his elongating arm, digging his metal fingers into the floor; the steel tether held for a few moments. A startled scream made him look up, only to see the Tamaranean careening dangerously towards his head, having lost her fight with the wind and on the losing end of energy to begin with; she slammed bodily into Cyborg, and he, she, and Beast Boy were thrown into Raven's whirling storm.

Robin fired a grappling birdarang towards the wall, where it punctured the wood and held fast; however, a loose chair assured that he did not remain holding on to it, crashing down onto his back and rendering him unconscious. If Raven had meant her last ditch effort to be so violent, no one could be sure, but with so few handholds in so brutal a storm, none of the remaining Titans had much of a chance at escaping the vortex; so one by one, they too were sucked into the dark portal.

The winds ceased abruptly and the portal closed once all of the Titans had been transported. Raven floated gently back to earth. She fell to her knees, severely weakened, the voices in her head ringing louder than ever before; deep inside, someone was laughing; deep inside, someone cried. Raven looked around at the damage she'd done, and though she said it softly to herself, the room's acoustics carried it far into the back seats of the balconies. "Not with a bang but a whimper."

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A/N: Heh. To Be Continued.


	2. ACT II: Unusual Vicissitudes

**A/N:** Ah. Here it is, just as I've been promising for the past two years! It was only after finishing and posting the first act did I realize that the second (which I already had written) was not up to par in the least. In point of fact, looking back on it now, that first version was _terrible_. So, I made a total overhaul and rewrote it completely, and now it's all the better for it. You can thank me with your reviews.

**Disclaimer?:** Oh, who indeed. We'll start with Marv Wolfman, Gaston Leroux, T. S. Eliot, and L. Frank Baum, bless their hearts.

**Summary?:** Act Two of Three. Something dark within Raven has been building, ending in what will become the return of Trigon. Left without a choice, she must abandon morals and place faith in Starfire. But will Starfire abandon faith, or will she rise above it? Mild RavenStar.

**Notes?:** Have you been paying attention in your lit class? I get funky with classical symbolism sometimes. And I love _le double entendre_. And parallel story structure. But the foreshadowing? I think the foreshadowing is my _favorite_.

Also, overanalysis is quirky. The whole Azarath tirade came to me as a random epiphany in the shower after months and months of inactivity on this thing. I hope it makes you think a little, because it made _me _think _a lot_. :)

It also appears I made a liar of myself: this chapter is actually _thirty_ pages long, instead of the intended twenty. It was a veritable blast to write though, so I hope you enjoy reading this monster as much as I did writing it.

* * *

**  
Phantoms of Azarath**  
by: Griffinmon

**ACT II: Unusual Vicissitudes: People of the Stars**

The subway was still empty, dark, and unwelcoming. Hisses of steam crawled across the walls, rustled against aging posters, and escaped up the stairs into the frosty night air. Lights flickered dimly as Starfire passed beneath them. Her hands gave off a warm, emerald glow that faintly lit her way. A giant metal behemoth rested in its tracks, breathing quietly in gnarled twists of steam.

Starfire's steps carried her toward the door of the train, which slid open with a throaty cough. She stared at it for a moment, surprised, but before she even knew what she was doing, the door closed behind her, and the train pulled away from the station. Starfire stumbled against the movement, grabbed for a hand rail, fingers grasping at icy steel posts as the train surged headfirst into the tunnel's darkness.

The car went black for a moment, while Starfire caught her breath. She squinted, peering vainly into the inky shadows. A tiny, shuffling movement caught her attention, though she could not see what had made it. When the lights came back on without warning, she blinked, and when she opened them again, she saw…

Raven, standing before her, dressed all in black, with her face deeply overshadowed by a cowl pulled too low. Her lips quirked in a sly smile.

Behind her, seated and lonely, was a second Raven cloaked all in white.

Starfire stared between them, bewildered. She muttered the empath's name, and both responded with a vague nod.

_How very good it is to see you_, whispered the black-cowled Raven. _I have been away for a very long time, wouldn't you agree?_

Starfire nodded hesitantly. She glanced imploringly at White Raven, but that empath stared only at the floor.

_Does your heart not long for my presence?_ asked Raven. _Does it not ache, as mine has, for the touch of another_?

Starfire turned, startled. Black Raven had come very close, her face within inches of Starfire's, close enough for Starfire to feel the empath's warm breath against her lips.

_Surely you have not forgotten_, the Raven said, after searching Starfire's face. _Surely it meant as much to you_?

When Starfire replied that she did not understand, the black-cloaked Raven's face contorted angrily. Her breath came quicker, harsher, and cold.

_You are no friend_, she snarled. _I gave you all that was precious to me, and you repay me with _insult_. You don't care. You never did. Was it a farce, dearest? Was all we shared a lie?_ Starfire began to deny that terrible implication, but Raven lashed out with a hand, and Starfire was sent hurtling violently backwards, until she slammed into the car's metal door. Black energy held her there, pressed against the cold steel, as the black-cloaked Raven curled a lip in disgust. _You don't deserve a friend like me. You hardly deserve to_ live._ What else have you been lying about, I wonder?_

Starfire shook her head widely, pleading with Raven to let her go, to stop her madness --

_Madness?_ Raven looked amused. _Oh, dear, no. This is clarity. I see, for the first time, your true colors. I see what you really are._ She ran a cold finger down Starfire's cheek. The Tamaranean stared in disbelief. _I see the shadows, I see the evil that sleeps in your soul, in the souls of all around you. But you, my dear… Your darkness is the strongest of them all. It is deep and fertile, your hate so very _bitter_. So very like my own._

For a moment, Starfire's eyes flicked back to the Raven in white -- but that Raven sat quite still, and sighed, resigned.

The dark Raven's hand clasped her chin, forcing eye contact again. _I tell you only what you know is already true_. And when she smiled then, it was twisted, wicked, and her frosty breath escaped in puffs of white. _Tell me, princess..._ _Do you hate me_?

Their lips were so close that Starfire needed only to lean forward and accept, but instead she swallowed hard and gently shook her head 'no.' Raven smiled, her dual set of eyes glowing deep red within the shadows of her cowl.

_You should_.

Starfire remembered screaming, remembered fighting, remembered the freezing touch of dark magic crawling across her skin. She remembered it tearing through her, seeping into her pores as the sunlight once would have. She remembered feeling it invade her senses, clouding them, destroying them. She remembered feeling fragments slide across her nerves, burning them open and raw. She remembered how every touch, how every little breath of wind was excruciating to bear.

The darkness growled to her, _This is the way the world ends_.

And then, she remembered Robin. She remembered Beast Boy. She remembered Cyborg. She remembered Hot Spot, Speedy, and Aqualad. Her mind flicked chaotically across memories, vainly trying to drag her away from pain to happier times.

The darkness hissed to her, _This is the way the world ends_.

But then the darkness dragged her back. It forced her to relive the horror, the hate, the pain, the fear… and all Starfire could do then was cry, and pray, and scream.

The darkness snickered to her, _This is the way the world ends_.

And suddenly the pain was gone and she was floating. She could hear her heart beating in the stillness, felt it contract harshly at a wretched thought. She could feel nothing else for several long moments Her entire body trembled, feeling suddenly very cold and very warm at the same time. Raven, she thought… _Why_?

_Not with a bang_, the darkness assured her, _but a whimper_.

… And there the dream ended…

--

A small, pained sob escaped from Starfire's throat as consciousness returned, gradually. Her eyes opened, lashes fluttered, focused on a stretch of infinite darkness dotted all over by brightly twinkling stars, mere snowflakes that had settled on black velvet. She turned onto her side, feeling her hands shifting through the fine coat of dirt upon the hard ground as she pushed herself up to sit on her knees. She hurt in nearly every place she could think of, aching from betrayal and from very physical pain. Worst of all, she felt as though that beautiful stretch of sky was laughing at her. She could practically hear it, chuckling in the back of her mind.

She stared at the soil for a good long time, gathering her thoughts, before she finally lifted her head to look about, forcing herself to ignore the laughter. There was little to see -- the dusty land stretched for a little ways before cutting off sharply, presumably a ledge, and there was such a build-up of white and airy cloud around them that she had to assume that they sat upon a cliff of moderate height. The inky sky gradated into warmer colors, yellows and pinks and oranges, interspersed with white. Was the sun setting? Starfire wondered for a moment. It did not feel like a rising sun, the way the colors played, so it _must_ have been setting.

At least there is still daylight here, she assured herself, wherever _here_ is.

Cyborg was awake as well, sitting several feet away and rubbing at the human half of his head; he reeled in the excess length of his other arm, finding that in that hand he still clutched a piece of carpet from the theater. He stared at it, a little incredulous, before flinging it angrily to the side.

"Friend Cyborg," the Tamaranean called, "Are you well?"

"Well?" he asked, rather tersely, turning to face her. "I'm in one piece, if that's what you mean. But _well_?" He shook his head slowly, "We just did the freakin' Time Warp and you're asking if I'm _well_?" Her wounded expression calmed his bitterness, and he apologized gently. When she still seemed upset, he tried to casually change the subject. "So, uh," he started, hesitantly, tapping at the chaotically bleeping GPS sensor in his arm plate. The reading seemed to imply that they were sitting in several different places at once, and that they were still moving. Cyborg had to assume, under the circumstances, that the sensor had suffered fatal damage in the fall. "Weird… I guess we're not in Kansas anymore, huh?"

Starfire gave him an odd glance, though in her defense, it was an even odder thing to say. "We were never in Kansas to begin with," she informed him frankly.

He had already risen to his feet and was wiping the dust from places it didn't rightfully belong. He seriously contemplated explaining the allusion to her, but thought better of it. "Yeah, well…"

Starfire stood shakily, rubbing at her knees. "This is certainly not the Marvelous Land of Oz, if _that_ is what you meant."

Cyborg looked stunned. He hadn't really expected a comeback. "You… read that? Guess I'm gonna have to start talkin' to you more," he said finally.

She smiled; it was a small, sweet, conservative expression that almost prompted Cyborg to ask, what's wrong with this picture?

Instead, he grinned in return; she'd gotten him fair and square, after all. He probably just wasn't giving her enough credit. "Okay, since we're on the subject, where're Toto and the Lollipop Guild?"

Starfire giggled, and was about to contrast the lack of a certain Good Sorceress of the South… but that alone brought her back to grim reality. Raven. What had been good humor faded rather quickly into saddened calm.

Starfire put on a brave face, deciding that the first order of business would be to find the others, and as Starfire thought of them, something odd happened. She swore that she could feel Beast Boy standing near-by. It was the most extraordinary thing, as he was clearly nowhere in sight. She had a similar, but more distant, feeling about Hot Spot. Other presences, strangely familiar but strange nonetheless, nudged at sight just beyond sight, out of range. As though to add insult to injury, Robin and Speedy seemed entirely absent from the picture her mind painted.

Cyborg watched curiously as Starfire faced the clouded air. Her eyes were unfocused, and she looked as though she were concentrating on something in the distance. She raised a hand, pointing to the space of air directly in front of her, just a step or two from the edge of the cliff. Cyborg scratched his head, eyebrow furrowed. "What's up, Star?"

His words seemed to startle Starfire from her trance. She blinked, then pushed past him, halting at where the ground fell sharply, staring down at the unconscious form of Beast Boy, lying sprawled out on an outcrop a good ten or so feet from where she stood.

A breath escaped her throat, a miniscule sound that drew Cyborg to her side to see what the matter was. He let out a shout, dropping to his knees, leaning as far over as he dared, examining their supine teammate through his mechanical eye; he muttered something, an oath, or the changeling's name, or both, but regardless of whichever it really was, he received a wavering groan in reply. The bigger teen let out a nerve-ravaged laugh as Beast Boy sat up on his own, clearly dazed.

"Beast Boy!" Starfire piped, leaning forward, hair falling about her shoulders, a veritable halo of flame-red locks.

The changeling blinked, glanced upwards. "That you, Auntie Em?"

"Oh, good," Cyborg grunted, though inwardly he was considerably relieved. "His ego must've broken the fall."

"I heard that," Beast Boy yelled, getting to his feet. He took a moment to dust off the leggings of his costume before flapping his way up the ten foot difference and reforming behind his comrades. They didn't turn, instead remaining leaning, staring into the distance. "Uh, guys? I'm over here. Guys?" Beast Boy, as a delightfully green woodpecker, settled onto the cranium of his comic foil and gave the metal plates a tap or two.

Starfire waved a hand to capture the changeling's attention and pointed a finger to redirect it. Beast Boy popped back into human form, still sitting on Cyborg's broad shoulders, and stared at the massive, gleaming white civilization laid before them as the clouds thinned and parted for a moment. It shimmered in the light, as though it were made of gold, and sat upon a hill across from their mountain, separated by a small field filled with flowers, through which there ran a single road that led through the archway that served as the city's entrance.

"Dude!" He was suddenly silent and reflective, but it was only for a moment. "Dudes!" he crowed, bouncing a little, poking more at the back of the half-metal teen's head. "It's like we're looking right at the Emerald City! All we need now is our own yellow-brick road!"

Cyborg shook his head, reaching back and grabbing the changeling by the collar, pulling him off, sitting up, and glaring into the nose-twitching face of a bunny-shaped Beast Boy. He set the rabbit to the side, and with a roll of the eyes said, "No roads up here, Scarecrow. Only road _I_ saw was down there, and if we wanna _get_ down there, we're gonna have to climb." Beast Boy, reformed, stared blankly at his friend, then down at the cloud-shrouded cliff-side, then back at Cyborg and so forth, until the bigger teen stood up with an aggravated sigh. "It's not that bad. I mean, if my readings about the atmosphere are correct, I really don't think we're that high up."

"That's just what it wants you to think," the changeling muttered conspiratorially.

"The _mountain_?" Cyborg shot back, without missing a beat. He waved off any of the green boy's further protests by turning to Starfire. "Think you can fly?"

"Yes," The Tamaranean answered, hesitantly, before shaking her head sadly. "But I have not had the chance to recover any energy. I wish to conserve what remains for an emergency."

He gave a polite nod, pondering for a moment; he glanced down, his mechanical eye recalculating the estimate. "Understandable. Well," he began, grinning at Beast Boy. "If she can't fly, I _know_ you can. Why don't you scout out some handholds for us?"

The changeling blinked quietly, "Oh." An ear twitched, a corner of his mouth perking as his own importance slowly dawned on him. "Yeah! Yeah, I can do that!"

Cyborg waved a hand to urge him on. "Well, get to it."

"Yes, sir!" Beast Boy yelled, saluting enthusiastically, before he stepped back over the cliff's edge and was replaced by a small green hummingbird, which zipped down and was lost in the blur of white cloud.

Cyborg chuckled softly as he carefully took a seat, large metal legs dangling over the cliff-side. He seemed serene, if not a little sad, as he stared into the clouds that had crossed again between them and the mysterious city. Starfire sat next to him, and suddenly felt the same wash of sorrow, the spite of knowing she had failed to save a friend -- that she had failed to save three more. Tears pricked at the backs of her eyes and she thought she heard the laughter from before. The amusement of a galaxy, focused solely on her. The tears began to turn bitter in her eyes, but before they could make their appearance, she felt the sadness lift.

"Hey," Cyborg said, gesturing with an immense hand to point out a shape in the clouds. "If you look closely enough, it looks like a duck."

Starfire did look up, following his gaze while the tears vanished and the laughter quieted, and she stared hard into the mists, cocking her head to the side. When the image finally occurred to her, she blinked at it, and then at him. "It is upside-down."

He laughed, nodding gently. "Well, nobody's perfect."

Just one glance up at his kind face informed Starfire of his objective of comforting her. She smiled, rather grimly, but did not reply. Cyborg noticed it immediately, and nudged her lightly with his elbow. "Hey now, what's wrong? Tell ol' Cy what's buggin' you."

Starfire thought about it for a minute, but there were too many things to list.

"Oh, I get it," he murmured, "You're worried 'bout Raven, huh?" He smiled again, weakly, as he rubbed at the back of his head. "I wouldn't worry too much… I mean, the girl's tiny, but she packs a heck of a punch."

"She is vulnerable," the Tamaranean whispered; her tone was muffled by the resurgence of tears, eyes locked on the cloud as it disassembled itself, as it floated away. "I felt it."

Cyborg grimaced, unsure of how to reply. He hated to think of Trigon as being the reason for Raven's… "We'll find a way," he stated solemnly.

Starfire restrained from shaking her head as the universe began to laugh. In thought, she commanded it to _stop_. She resented being the butt of a universe's obscure, if not divine, joke. Teeth clenched, she averted her eyes from Cyborg, staring down, staring away, fearful that he'd noticed. The universe laughed, on and on, every single molecule shaking with a terrible humor that she felt in her bones. All she could hear was its cascading accusations, horrible and blunt and ever-present, until her own thoughts began to join in. _He sounds so sure of himself, does he not_? _What makes him believe that Raven is even redeemable_? _Look at what has become of you_. _Look at where you are_. _Look at what she has _done.

Something clicked in Cyborg's mind – the human half, the half that knew Trigon was coming. As he watched Starfire turn from him in seeming panic, the irrational part of himself muttered that she was different now. It was in the smallest of ways, but Starfire was no longer Starfire. His machine half carefully shooed that absurdity away, and passed off her current behavior as post-traumatic stress.

Starfire shuddered, her knuckles shock white as rock began to crumble in the grip of her monstrous strength. She begged the voices of the universe to be silent, to stop these terrible thoughts -- she _believed_ in Raven, she _trusted_ Raven, Raven would not hurt them!

And it seemed to reply. _Raven tore the group apart, Raven sent you here, Raven kissed you_. _She was cold and dying and she gave herself to you so that she would not die, and _how_ did you repay that_? How_ did you return her gesture_? _You did not. You ignored her, you reprimanded her, you disregarded her final words and now you have what you _deserve. _How does it feel_? How _does it feel to know that you were not the one betrayed, but that you perpetrated the betrayal_? _It was not Raven who sent you here; you brought this on yourself_. _You didn't care_. _Raven went to you for _help_, and _you didn't care.

I_ do _care! Starfire screamed inwardly, _I care so much for her_! _I cared_! _I did not abandon her_! _I did _not--

_You left her to _die. _You killed her_. _Murderer_. _Murderer!_

And, as though the cosmos sought to insult her further, a magnificent green albatross rose grandly from below, riding an upwards draft. It squawked happily as it soared over the heads of its sitting comrades to reform quickly as their plucky changeling. He saluted once more to Cyborg, "Mission objective, complete!"

The older young man glanced worriedly at Starfire, but turned a quiet smile towards Beast Boy. "Stand down, soldier," he said, carefully rising to his feet, chuckling a bit, as Beast Boy had already morphed into a friendly-looking Labrador, wagging his tail enthusiastically. "You find us a way?"

A bright green parrot bobbed its head, "Affirmative!" He then, as a chimpanzee, waddled back over to the cliff-side and began descending.

Cyborg winced somewhat, reminded of the two hundred pounds of metal he carried. "You sure it'll hold me?"

A hefty-looking gorilla nodded back up at him. "Yup!"

The bigger teen sighed, and then shrugged. "No other choice, I guess." He leaned over, still troubled. "You sure you don't want to carry us?"

An emerald orangutan focused a glare back at Cyborg. "I'm a monkey, not a bus. Star's not the only one around here who's getting tired, y'know."

"I know, I know." Cyborg pushed out another sigh, this one of resignation, and turned a look to Starfire. She still seemed so distracted. He put a heavy hand on her shoulder, and she slowly turned her eyes to him. He was surprised to find she had been crying; the tear trails were prominent on her cheeks. He kneeled and Starfire felt the concern coat her. And even though his steel fingers were cold, she felt that he was unmistakably warm. "Com'on, Star," he murmured, his tone tender, paternal. "We'll find a way. We'll save Raven -- it's not an option. I promise."

Her eyes watered -- when she blinked, another stream of tears followed the path down her cheeks. She nodded slightly, a very small gesture, though she said not a word.

"You guys!" Up trailed Beast Boy's voice, "It's the end of the world, not a pity party! Are you coming or not?"

"Alright already!" Cyborg snapped loudly. He turned a sheepish grin towards Starfire, who did not smile, but did seem relieved. The universe had fallen silent, though what had prompted it, she did not know. Cyborg took a deep breath before he slid himself off the ledge, maintained a steel death-grip on the rocky face as he slowly followed after Beast Boy, who directed his steps with absolute confidence. Starfire trailed after, listening as Cyborg instructed her own steps. The universe chortled then, and once more the echoing choir of accusations and self-doubt resounded between her ears, drowning out the Cyborg's words. She did not hear his cry of surprise or the sharp whistle of wind past her ear, and though she felt the stone tearing through her fingers, she could not grasp that she was now falling. Beast Boy launched himself from the cliff-side once he'd realized what had happened, a hawk spiraling through the updraft, but physics was cruel, and the ground was nearer to Starfire than he…

Starfire landed heavily in the overheated arms of Hot Spot, who skid to a halt, belly to the ground, breathing hard. He grinned broadly, from what she could see through his molten skull. "Hey. I thought you could fly."

Her eyes and ears cleared, turning questioningly to the honorary Titan. "Friend Hot Spot?" Starfire asked, perfectly confused, and yet somehow unsurprised.

He shook his head as he set her down in front of him. "Nevermind. You have no idea how glad I am to see you!" He rose to his knees, pointing behind himself. "You gotta tell these whackos that I'm not a demon or whatever!"

"What?"

"These freaks are trying to push me through that thing--" He gestured to the massive door before him. "You gotta tell them I'm not whatever it is they think I am!"

Starfire stared at him, glanced briefly at the engraved and oddly ancient door, and then past him, focusing on a solemn knot of blue robed and hooded people. At their forefront was a woman in white; beneath her cowl, Starfire could see an uncanny resemblance… "Raven?" She asked, before she could stop herself.

The group tensed quietly; the one in white turned to the following and they conversed in inaudible tones, with faces like immobile stone. When her attention returned to the Titans, several blue robed individuals started forward; Hot Spot leapt to his feet, hands suddenly engulfed in roaring flames as he growled a warning. They stood still, neither afraid nor confident in the face of his threat.

They scattered suddenly, scrambling back as Cyborg materialized from the foggy skies, the ground buckling beneath his feet, his joints creaking noticeably in the wake of his heavy landing, and aimed a ready cannon in their direction. Beast Boy fluttered down and reformed next to him, ready and willing to join the fight.

But no fight broke out. The cloaked assembly stared blankly at the incomplete team, a few exchanged glances between themselves, and that was all. In that heavy hush, Starfire pushed herself to her feet and calmly circumnavigated Cyborg, Beast Boy and Hot Spot. She crossed the distance that Cyborg's decibel cannon had put between the groups and stood eye to eye with what seemed to be the leader.

"Please," she implored softly, mournfully. "We are looking for our friends."

A murmur circulated quickly, rippling from back to front, and then ended as it had started.

"_That's_ not ominous at all," Hot Spot muttered beneath his breath, flexing a hand.

"Starfire," Cyborg barked, "Get back."

"I am able to take care of myself," she replied sharply to Cyborg, without turning. She stared into icy blue eyes nearly utterly obscured by a white, drooping cowl. The face was smoothness worn by horror and a life that had been most unkind, and cracked not a single semblance of emotion. She pleaded with it, "_Please_."

"Uh," Beast Boy chirped. "Maybe they don't speak English?"

"Well, what do you suggest?" Cyborg snapped. "French?"

"I say we blast them and get it over with," Hot Spot interjected crossly. "_That_ won't need a translation."

The changeling grinned, "We'll try my idea first, then yours!" He took a few steps forward, a mighty ambassador taking his stand at the podium, and asked, quite impeccably, "Tout parlez-vous français? Nous recherchons nos amis."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" The cannon dropped an inch, along with Cyborg's jaw. "When did _you_ learn _French_?"

"Si vous n'étiez pas un tel cancre," Beast Boy said with a grin, looking perfectly smug all over, "Vous pourriez apprendre aussi."

"I don't know what you just said, but when I find out--" A movement from the white-cloaked one drew Cyborg's weapon back to eye-level and cut his threat short.

Her hands pulled back the cowl, and a dark-haired woman, raven locks pouring in waves over her shoulders, strangely reminiscent of a certain sorceress and yet nothing like her, presented a hand to Starfire. Her striking blue eyes focused on Beast Boy for a moment as she replied, warily, "_Oui,_ je sais un peu… You must be the Teen Titans. Welcome to Azarath."

Starfire studied the offered hand, and saw it to be a frail and delicate-looking thing, with long fingers, one bound by a small golden ring that Starfire guessed must have been at least as old as the woman herself. She took the hand, finally; its grip was stronger than she'd estimated, but then she felt an overwhelming calm blanket itself over her mind. She smiled thankfully up at the dark-haired woman, but the expression that met her relief seemed markedly grim. The alien had the sudden, sinking feeling that this woman could see straight through her -- could she, then, see the wickedness? The stain of the betrayal that marred her lips?

"Azarath?" Cyborg echoed, lowering his cannon, and only that. "Wait'a minute, isn't that the place where Raven's from?"

"_Dude_!" Beast Boy bleated, the thought registering with frightening rapidity. "No way!"

"Are you guys serious? _Azarath_?" The metal teen asked again. He received a series of solemn nods.

"Uh, 'scuse me?" Hot Spot interposed, waving a hand in front of Cyborg's stunned face. "I seem to be left out of the loop, here. Where are we, exactly?"

"Azarath!" The green boy exclaimed, as if it were obvious.

"Yeah, I heard." The fiery Titan raised an eyebrow. "Is that in Europe or something?"

"No, dude," Beast Boy clarified, "It's in, like, space."

"Space." Hot Spot had ceased to be amused quite some time ago. In fact, he was quickly developing a very annoyed look. "We're in _space_?"

"_Kind of_," was the tentative answer.

"No, _really_. Where are we?" Hot Spot turned a quick glare at Cyborg, who was utterly amused by the exchange, to silently notify him that he needed to wipe that stupid grin off his face if he wanted to keep it. The Azaratheans looked on in a sort of dignified bemusement, though Starfire found herself unable to focus on anything but the frost in the eyes of the woman in white.

_This one sees the darkness that wells within you_, the universe informed her gleefully. _What do the others see, I wonder_?

"_Well_--!" The changeling wrapped an arm about his comrade's shoulders, but let him go with a yelp, belatedly realizing that the Titan, so flustered at the apparent lack of explanation at every corner, was on the verge of bursting into flame. "Geez, dude! Chill out, will ya'? _Literally_," he added, rubbing at his stinging arm and shoulder.

"I'm going to ask this _one_ more time," Hot Spot growled, fists clenched. "_Where_ _the H'San Natall are we_?"

Cyborg and Beast Boy took a precautionary step back. "Uh, well," the changeling began, twiddling his fingers. "We're in Azarath. It's, like, Raven's home world, only kind of a home and not really a world."

The heat died _slowly_, reducing itself by degrees as Hot Spot searched his teammates for a more satisfying answer. "So you've been here before?"

"Um," Beast Boy murmured, straining for a proper, fulfilling response, but came up staggeringly short. "No. Not _really_."

There may have been an extra connotation tagged onto Beast Boy's emphasis on _really_, but the oncoming headache made the fiery Titan feel too tired to try and analyze it. "But Raven told you about this place, right?"

"Well…" Beast Boy gave a weak smile, scratching at the back of his head. "No."

Hot Spot then closed his eyes and wordlessly started counting to ten. The temperature of his body was soaring, rolling off him in waves of heat. Sensing that he was the source of such barely concealed fury, the changeling scurried senselessly to dive for cover behind Cyborg.

"Azarath," one of the blue-cloaked people quickly fielded, so as to deter the mounting hostility before Hot Spot could mutely reach five, "Is a traveling dimension. It has been in existence for more than a century as a place of true peace." He bowed graciously when the Titans turned to regard him with surprised looks. "The Raven you speak of was born here, and here she was raised by our goddess Azar."

"Now, see, was that so hard?" Cyborg and Beast Boy breathed a sigh as Hot Spot's mercurial temper just as quickly cooled, as the boy gestured faintly to the anonymous Azarathean. "_That's_ the kind of answer I was looking for."

Starfire carefully released the hand of the white-cloaked woman and stepped back, away, breaking eye contact, though she still felt the inscrutable gaze locked on her, boring holes into her soul. She feared the woman, harmless though she was, for it occurred to Starfire that if this woman could indeed see into her, she would reveal her secret. The thought clicked oddly, like the dim tick-tick of a hidden clock -- secret? Was it any secret that she was an awful friend? Was it any secret that she had left a comrade to die? That she had betrayed a frail little girl, left her to undeservingly suffer the most horrendous of tragedies? That she--

"Raven was a part of us, though we had no part in her," the Azarathean continued solemnly, as though reflecting quietly on a piece of literature that had been read to him countless times in the past. "She spoke to no one but Azar. She avoided the priests -- she meditated only. She questioned our ways and rebelled against our teachings."

The universe seemed to find that funny, snickering in the back of her mind. As though to counter it, Starfire intensified her focus on the words of the Azarathean.

"That…" Cyborg murmured, brow furrowing, "That doesn't really sound like Raven."

"Yeah," Beast Boy interjected unhelpfully, crossing his arms over his lean chest and nodding furiously.

"It is a complicated matter," the Azarathean defended gently. "The death of Azar affected us all in different ways."

"Friends," Starfire gasped suddenly, perhaps now more frightened than she had ever been before. "Where are our friends? Where are Robin and Speedy?"

"Ah," he breathed, "There were two outsiders found on the city's border, injured quite severely. They were taken to the Temple Azarath so that our priests could care for them. Please, let us lead you there." He gestured for the group to follow as he and the rest of the Azaratheans turned back down the path.

The woman in white did not move at first, her eyes still trained on Starfire's gilded face, pale and dusty though she was. "There is much conflict within you," she said finally, in a voice so low that the Tamaranean almost didn't hear it. Once the woman turned to go, Starfire shakily raised her hands to rub her burning eyes, for upon hearing those words she had come quite close to tears again.

"Comin'?" Cyborg asked, and Starfire belatedly realized that the Titans had already started out after the group. Once her focus settled back onto her friends, she felt their overwhelming reluctance, their distrust, burning brightly like a lantern in total blackness, for there was no other emotion here. She stumbled in her hurry to catch up, laughing awkwardly when Cyborg caught her, preventing her from doing a direct face-plant into the white stone path. He was regarding her sternly, his steely eyes trying to look beyond her hastily built wall. "You feelin' okay, Star?"

"I--" _No_, the universe whispered, in poisoned tones. _You're not feeling okay_._ Not in any sense, and never again_. "Y-yes, friend Cyborg. Like peaches."

His eyes were vacant for a moment while he processed (and translated) that answer. "Oh. Well, you seemed kind'a… I dunno… _distracted_. It ain't really like you..." He had known her to become easily distracted, yes, but never like _this_. "You sure you're okay, Star?"

"Yes," she lied. "I am merely tired."

"We can stop an' rest, if you want."

"N-no!" Starfire snapped, perhaps a little too quickly. Cyborg looked markedly concerned. "I mean… I do not wish to delay us. We must find Robin and friend Speedy – they are in much worse condition than I."

He stared at her for a long while, searching her face, mulling over her bold-faced fib. Finally, he nodded. "Okay," he said. "I understand."

_He doesn't_, the universe snapped viciously. _He can't. What machine can ever know or comprehend your deepest thoughts and feelings_? Starfire strained to ignore it, taking long strides to make up the distance she'd lost. Cyborg looked after her, still skeptical, but he followed without another word.

The group, however, did not walk in silence. Hot Spot was grossly under-informed as to the matter at hand, so the Azaratheans tried their best to explain the complex nature of Raven's familial troubles.

"So, this Trigon guy. We gotta stop him before he can get to Raven." Hot Spot repeated, not seeming particularly convinced. "Uh-huh. And what, exactly, is gonna happen if he _does_ get to her?"

"Were Trigon to possess Raven," one announced quietly, her voice soft and peaceful. "It would be the end of us, the end of Azarath, and the end of your world as well."

"Trigon would destroy everything," another agreed, his tones equally as eerily calm. It was as though they were reciting poetry. "And everyone. Not just those who would stand in his way. All would be lost."

"You see, we have been doomed to die from the very beginning," one added serenely. "Before Raven had even come to us."

Hot Spot raised his eyebrows -- from what they could see of his face -- and looked thoughtful. "Oh," he said finally. "So, it's just the end of the world as we know it? …Well, isn't that just the biggest pile of--"

Cyborg sharply elbowed the honorary Titan, who nearly fell over from the sheer force of the nudge.

Hot Spot let out a hiss of pain, holding his sides. "--of goody-goody gumdrops."

Another woman continued, gazing now directly at the fire-headed Titan, "I hope you will forgive our earlier behavior. We are not used to such… _arrogance_, and anger is forbidden here. We feared you might bring harm to our way of life."

"Way to live," Hot Spot growled, still rubbing at his sore ribs.

"Please," one of the men said. "I hope that in time you will absolve us of our error. For now, we are willing to take you all in as guests of Azar."

"Sure," Hot Spot muttered sulkily. "Whatever."

"So, uh, if Azar's not around any more, who's, like the, uh… who's _Vice_ President of Azarath?" Beast Boy pondered aloud.

"No one person is greater than the other," yet another blue-cloaked stranger filled in. "We continue to follow the word of Azar, whose spirit and wisdom extends beyond death."

"…Right…" At learning that, the changeling began to look somewhat disturbed.

"So you're still takin' orders from a dead broad?" Hot Spot asked, incredulous. He found himself in a very uncomfortable situation when every Azarathean in the group halted in their steps in order to turn and stare at him. There was no emotion in their faces, but he figured that if there was, they'd be shooting daggers at him. "I mean, uh… That's… awesome? Go Azarath." He said quickly, attempting reparation, but they did not move. "Uh… Hip-hip-hooray?"

The other Titans sighed, groaned, and shook heads at Hot Spot's behavior; Cyborg made mental notes to tape the fiery Titan's mouth shut later.

"Do not mock our faith," said the Azarathean in white. "If you knew what Azar has done for us, you would not be so quick to judge."

Hot Spot fidgeted under their blank scrutiny. "Okay, okay! I'm sorry. Really, I didn't mean it. I was just… I was joking, get it?"

"I do not," the woman replied.

Hot Spot winced. "Oh. Well, I, uh… I'm really, really sorry?"

Collectively, their emotionless cohorts seemed to contemplate the sincerity of his apology. The Titans could not tell what their decision had been, but with a nod, the Azaratheans turned and continued to lead anyway.

Cyborg grabbed the fiery Titan's shoulder before he could move again, and waited a moment for the Azaratheans to pass out of earshot. "Quit antagonizin' these guys, alright? We ain't in a position to be doling out insults."

"These people are _crazy_," Hot Spot countered furiously. "_Every last_ _one _of 'em. How'm I supposed to take them seriously if they're the ones who're listening to what a dead lady said a hundred years ago about waiting on an _interdimensional demon_ to end their civilization?"

"I _know_ it sounds wild, H," Cyborg said, in a softer voice, "But these are Raven's people, and this is what they believe. We _gotta_ trust 'em. We ain't got any other choice."

Hot Spot groaned, then gave a reluctant sigh. "Okay, but if your creepy little friend's cult ends up getting us killed," he said, looking sternly at Cyborg. "I am going to be _so_ _mad_ at you."

Cyborg chuckled warmly, and patted Hot Spot on the shoulder. "Alright, H. I'll keep that in mind." And with that, the two hurried to catch up.

The Azaratheans had led the Teen Titans to their white city on a hill, beneath its grand pillar archway. It was a place that they could sense had been expunged of all its evil, so peaceful did it feel, and they were told that it was a home to one and all. Many of Azar's followers had come from Earth, and had given up their sinful lifestyles to begin anew there in Azarath. "You are welcome here, for as long as you like," the Titans were told.

The Azaratheans led them through the center of the city, where beautifully decorated stone houses lined the street, and the road itself was punctuated at intervals by giant, bird-like statues, whose heads all stared grimly at the temple in the distance. As they walked, people gathered at the edges of the main road, to see the procession, to see those whom Azar had told them of so long ago. All of them, every man, woman, and child, wore blue robes, their faces hidden from one another by hoods.

Starfire walked near the back, painfully aware of the sterile expressions, the purposeful lack of emotion among the cloaked throng that had since flanked them, leading them to the temple like lambs to the altar. It bothered her on many levels, for she felt nothing else but the sharp contrast of the Titans' tense paranoia against _nothing_. It made her agitated and wary, and she knew she could not blame them for feeling as they did. The universe chuckled, agreeing with her, and she suddenly found herself praying that their suspicion would not be proved correct.

As they passed through the silent city street, she heard Hot Spot muttering, "This place gives me the creeps."

Beat Boy nodded his agreement, whispering in return, "I know what you mean. Hey, you know what this place needs?"

"Their sanity back?" Hot Spot answered, smug. "A life?"

"Nah! Like… a comedian. We ought'a--"

"_No_." Cyborg interrupted. "And they can _hear you_."

"So?" Hot Spot spat.

"_So_, you need to _shut it_ before they decide that they don't want us here anymore," reprimanded the bigger teen.

They fell into silence for a little while, before one of the Azaratheans leading turned. "We are nearly there, Teen Titans. The Temple lies just ahead," he said, pointing. They marveled at the grand building in the distance, the massive, shimmering marble temple, gloriously ancient, lovingly crafted by the hands of the faithful, and shrouded in strange warmth.

Starfire had been unnaturally quiet, until now, when it suddenly occurred to her why this place frightened her so. She had not noticed it before, but now, seeing the golden light reflecting from the white stone, she knew what it was. She stopped dead in her tracks. "There is no sun here," she said, in a weak voice.

"Seriously?" Beast Boy said, before turning his eyes skyward and looking about. The rest of the Titans did the same. "Dude! That's so cool."

"No," she murmured, suddenly on the verge of tears. They could hear her voice crack, overwhelmed by a belated flood of emotions. "No, it is _not_ cool, it is _terrible_! If there is no sun here, I cannot recharge. If I cannot recharge…" Starfire trailed off, breathing hard with a barely contained hysteria. How could this _be_? What sort of place was this, to exist without a sun? What sort of _people_ were they, to derive their living necessity from just the cold and distant stars far above? She stared up at the heavens, which glowed very gently gold and red, as though lit by a setting sun, though there was no such life-giving star to be seen anywhere above or along the horizon.

"Aw, Star, don't talk like that. We'll--" Cyborg put a hand on Starfire's shoulder, but she shrugged it off violently.

She looked vehement, her eyes snapping embers while the universe far above howled with laughter. Her voice was eerily calm, "Please do not touch me."

Cyborg took a step back, blinking in confusion. The other Titans looked equally baffled. "I… I'm sorry?"

She couldn't bring herself to tell him that in that passing moment, while his hand had rested on her shoulder, she had felt his pity, his fear, and his anger. For a moment, she had felt each of them vividly, as though they were her own, and she knew he had said the words without thinking. He really didn't understand.

Starfire's gaze softened. "Do not be, my friend. I am merely…"

"Tired," he finished, and she nodded. "It's… it's okay, Star. You'll…" His gaze briefly washed over the onlooking crowd, and over his friends. "We'll all be okay."

He didn't understand. She didn't blame him.

--

Many of the Azaratheans began dispersing as they neared the temple stairs, returning to the streets, to trades, to homes, and perhaps even to family. The Titans moved forward with caution as the remaining Azaratheans led the way through the standing pillars and deep into the heart of that holy place. The woman who wore white stood to the side of the main entrance as they filed past. When their eyes met, Starfire felt a shudder rattle through her body. When the woman grasped her arm, Starfire halted in her steps, frozen with unwarranted terror.

For a bewildering moment, Starfire felt a sudden upsurge of anxiety funneling into her from the hand that held her; she could see for just a moment the snapping embers of a flame that hadn't quite died, a life smoldering behind those blue eyes.

"There is no need to fear us," she told Starfire gently, firmly, and released her. "When there is a moment to spare, you and I must speak in private."

Starfire nodded hesitantly; as she gained distance from the woman, she was suddenly keenly aware of the fear simmering quietly in the pit of her own stomach. She dropped her head shamefully, and kept it low even as she hurried to catch up with the rest of the group.

The universe, however, was already laughing, the loud and raucous kind of laugh that echoed through the halls, shrouding her in its mocking sound. Starfire fought to push it from her mind, covering her ears, distracting herself with thoughts of other things, focusing on her feet, breaking into a run…

There was already a gathering of more white-cloaked strangers, standing side-by-side in a ceremonial circle. They shuffled uncomfortably when Starfire burst into the room and skid to an awkward stop, and seemed a little taken aback with her entrance. Beast Boy and Hot Spot snickered, though each received a fierce _shut up now_ glare from Cyborg, who was still bothered by the unexplained change in her behavior.

He nudged her gently with an elbow, mouthing, _Where were you_?

Starfire shrugged noncommittally, pretending instead to be more interested in the goings-on taking place with the Azaratheans before them.

Whatever it was they had been doing, they already had seemed to finish before the Titans had arrived, for the white-garbed individuals turned to them, bowed, and filed quietly out of the room -- in their place, two blue-cloaked sheep hurried in to take a place near each of the two make-shift beds that had been set up there, around which the previous group had gathered. Two figures lay there, eyesores upon pure white sheets, the reds of their costumes horribly reminiscent of blood.

Starfire was first to Robin's side, with Cyborg in close second; Hot Spot shuffled nervously to Speedy, oddly dumbstruck by the sight, while Beast Boy stared between them.

"Are they...?" He swallowed hard, voice sounding very meek, pointed ears drooping visibly.

"No," Cyborg answered, having checked Robin, and now examining Speedy. "It's alright. They're alive."

As Cyborg was checking Speedy's pulse, a slow grin started across the ginger-haired archer's face. "Aw, Cy. It's sweet of you to hold my hand in my hour of need."

The bigger teen jumped, surprised, before roughly throwing Speedy's hand back at him and sending the archer into hysterical laughter. He sat up with a pained grunt, blinking sleepily at the surrounding Titans from behind his mask. "What's up?" Upon receiving only wide-eyed gaping stares in lieu of an actual reply, he moved a hand to his head, smoothing down what little hair there was to be found. "What?"

"You're... you're _okay_?" Cyborg asked, his tone still bearing some of the chagrin Speedy had bestowed him with.

"Uh," Speedy took a moment to check, patting himself down. "Well, yeah. I think I broke a few things that I didn't know I had, but for the most part, I'm feeling pretty good." He glanced around the room, smiling. "Those hooded dudes took most of the hurt out, so all that's left are a few bruises." Beast Boy hopped onto Speedy's ankle as a pleasantly green frog. The archer grinned, poking gently at the little amphibian. "Where've you guys been?"

"Looking for you," Hot Spot answered testily. "I nearly got _mobbed_ by those hooded dudes. For _you_."

"Wow," Speedy chuckled. "Sorry about that. There's not really much I can do about being unconscious… lucky for me and Rob that those guys came along, though." He leaned back, trying to see around Cyborg's immense shoulders. "He awake yet?"

Starfire shook her head quickly, feeling her cheeks flush and not knowing why. _Do you think they know what really happened?_ The universe pondered aloud, _Do you think that the woman in white will tell them_? _What would they say, do you think, if they knew_?

"Starfire?" The Tamaranean was jerked violently back to reality at the sound of her name. Robin was staring at her, and tears had sprung to her eyes. "Are you alright?"

The universe snickered as Starfire struggled to regain composure. "I am fine!" But she said it quickly, in a way that most definitely aroused the Boy Wonder's suspicions.

Cyborg turned around, the frown on his face a clear indication that his own concerns had been proven. He leveled a hard look at the gilded alien, and she could feel the sudden increase of confusion aimed in her direction by the other Titans. She smiled sheepishly, receding from the group, forcing her feelings deeper into herself. She did not need them worrying about her -- not while Raven was still so lost, and so vulnerable. In a deceptively cheerful way, she added, "I am overjoyed that you are all right, Friend Robin!"

The dark young man considered her bearing carefully, watching for the nervous tics that would surely reveal what she truly felt. "I'm... okay, I guess." He eyed Starfire as he sat up, winced at the fierce pang of muscle strained too far. "What happened? After Raven...?"

Cyborg shrugged. "Don't really know. All we can tell you is the girl sent us to _Azarath_."

The Batman's apprentice blinked thoughtfully. It sounded as though he should have known what that meant, but nothing came to him aside from the immediately obvious. "Azarath?" He repeated quizzically. "Like in her mantra?"

"It's Raven's home world," Hot Spot supplemented. "_Apparently_."

"Great," Speedy drawled, grinning ironically. "I was needing a vacation anyway."

"No," Robin shook his head, sliding off the bed, standing and stretching his back. "This isn't good at all. We need to get back to Earth."

"Well, _yeah_," Beast Boy bleated, reforming as a human, sitting cross-legged on Speedy's bed. "But we don't even really know where _we_ are. Raven didn't exactly leave us a road map, y'know?"

At that, Starfire lowered her eyes to stare at her hands._ Would they see you the same, I wonder,_ said the universe conspiratorially,_ If only they realized that it was _you_ who had caused their misfortune_?

Speedy scratched his chin, his little smirk a permanently fixed part of his expression. "We could probably ask one of these guys," he observed, pointing to the blue-cloaked individual sitting next to his bed.

The group turned its attention to the Azarathean, who glanced up sheepishly. "You must speak with Coman, the High Magistrate," he told them.

And out of the corner of her eye, Starfire thought she saw the shadows flicker.

--

"No one greater than the other, huh?" Hot Spot muttered, sneering at nothing in particular.

"Don't start," Cyborg warned, "We're in enough trouble as it is."

"I'm not starting," Hot Spot snapped. "I'm just saying it's kind of hypocritical."

"_Don't_."

Speedy raised an eyebrow at Beast Boy, motioning towards the arguing pair with a tilt of the head. "How long have they been doing that?"

"Like, all day, dude," the changeling replied with a sigh. "_All_. _Day_."

Starfire winced, and it went unnoticed. She felt so much anger and so much more fear just bubbling from the group like a fountain. It made her feel crazy. It made her head ache. It made her feel trapped.

The arguing was not helping.

"I'm just remarking on the fact that '_High_ Magistrate' is a really contradictory title for a civilization that bases its faith in—"

"Will you _shut up_?!" Cyborg bellowed, grabbing Hot Spot by the collar and raising a threatening fist.

Orange and red flame immediately flared to life around Hot Spot's hands. "Com'on an _make me_!"

"The both of you _stop_." Robin's voice carried, sharp and commanding, halting the two squabbling Titans mid-punch. Cyborg released Hot Spot with a snort. "You're acting like children."

"_He_ started it," the two Titans chimed simultaneously, pointing at one another. They then shot each other a glare.

"No, I don't want to hear it. The _both_ of you need to stop." Robin looked over his splintering group, shaking his head slowly. "Arguing like that won't get us anywhere… Literally." The Boy Wonder glanced over at the blue-cloaked sheep who had been leading them. The man was motionless, his blank face hidden in the shadows of his cowl.

"I cannot take you any farther if you are going to continue in this manner," the sheep told them, when he had gained all of their attention. "It is a disruption, a… a blasphemy. Your anger will poison our world."

Robin turned a firm look to Hot Spot, then to Cyborg, and then to the rest of the Titans. He calmly turned back to the Azarathean. "It won't happen again."

The sheep considered that promise carefully, for a long moment, and finally nodded. "Very well. This way…"

--

Very soon, the Titans found themselves standing at the edge of a beautiful garden in full bloom, surrounded by a ring of tall pillars. Atop each pillar sat an ivory bust of a hooded woman. Within that garden, a number of white-cloaked individuals tended, pulling weeds with their own hands and speaking softly to the flowers.

Hot Spot made a face, but didn't say anything.

"Magistrate," the sheep called, as he carefully navigated the little garden paths set in stone along the ground. "Coman, the Teen Titans would like to speak with you."

A man with a long, white beard sat up, turning to look at the group of oddly-garbed strangers still standing at the garden's edge. "Thank you, Tomsa." He stood, dusting the black, fertile dirt from his robes, though it had already stained around his knees. He did not seem to mind. "Hello, Teen Titans," he said serenely, "I have heard so much about you from Azar."

Hot Spot made another face, but still didn't say anything.

"Thank you," Robin began, diplomatically, with a bow. "We're honored to be your guests."

"It is nothing," Coman replied, with a very vague smile.

Starfire looked upon the exchange curiously, as did the rest of the Titans, all standing nervously behind their leader.

"However, if I might get straight to the problem…" Coman nodded, looking somewhat thoughtful as Robin continued, "Our friend Raven was the one who sent us here, though we don't how, or _why_, and we don't know how to leave. We need to get back to our own world as soon as possible, and--"

Coman raised a hand, to stop Robin there. "It is nothing, friend. I can tell you why you are here, and I can also tell you the way out. Please, if you and your friends will come with me, I will find you lodging and--"

"It's imperative that we get back as soon as possible," Robin insisted. "We just need to know how to leave."

"I understand, friend," Coman interrupted, gently. He gestured to Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Hot Spot, "But while you were being healed, your friends were looking for you, and did not have the chance to recover themselves. I think it would be better for the whole if you allowed the few to rest."

Robin paused, turned to look, and for the first time he saw how haggard the Titans were looking, how tired and beaten they seemed, and how short tempers had become. They had been so lively before, but now that the adrenaline had worn away… Robin nodded, after a moment. "Alright."

"Very good," Coman said, with a bow. "Come this way."

The Magistrate led them to a small, stone house the color of alabaster, which was decorated with the faces of Azarath's past, and where a blue-cloaked woman greeted them at the door. "Come in," she beckoned, leading them into the main room, where six cots had been set up. The woman then informed them that she would begin preparing dinner, and asked that the Magistrate also stay.

The Titans curiously glanced about the bare, white-washed room. Hot Spot patted one of the cot mattresses, frowning a little. If he had to guess, he'd say the thing was stuffed with straw.

"Don't complain," Cyborg warned, sitting heavily on a cot on the opposite side of the room.

"Tch, what do _you_ have to worry about?" the fiery Titan muttered, mostly to himself. "Your ass is made of metal."

"What was that, matchstick?" Cyborg stood, incensed and a giant among men, fists clenched. "Say it again, I dare you!"

There was a moment where the room had gone quiet with dread, as Cyborg and Hot Spot leapt forward, ready to pound some sense into one another. Robin, Speedy, Beast Boy and Coman had all moved forward, as well, to put a stop to their pointless fight, but found themselves halting, unnecessary. Cyborg and Hot Spot were just arm's length away, blinking in confusion.

Starfire was juxtaposed between them, a hand on each of their chests, keeping them apart. She kept her head down, face hidden behind a curtain of tangled red hair.

"_Please stop_," she whispered, in a ragged, tear-stained voice.

The squabbling boys looked down at the top of her head, still blinking, suddenly calmer, suddenly sympathetic. Fists lowered, tempers died. They didn't quite seem to know what to say, to each other, or to their friends.

Starfire grit her teeth, expression contorted and pained, and bore their fury in her chest, a thing that thrashed and screamed and tore at her like a wild animal. She took their resentment upon her shoulders, a heavy weight around her neck that pulled at her without reprieve, a thing that fought to drag her to the ground in silence. She took their fear, carrying it in her stomach, where it turned cold and desolate and fierce, churning and pleading like a lost soul. She absorbed their shame into her blood, seeping into her frame, where it slowed and froze and burned, a wild, raucous laughter that echoed as clearly in her ears as her own heartbeat.

She began to bend under the weight of it all. Trembling, she began to sink to her knees; Cyborg and Hot Spot caught her by the arms, crying out in surprise, though she couldn't hear them anymore. She was lost in a torrent of voices and feelings and laughter, and could no longer see nor hear the things around her.

All she could do was breathe, while the laughter boomed across her mind as she wandered blindly and ever deeper into a white, darkness-covered field, destined to never return.

But she stopped. Pausing, gazing into the eternal distance.

She knew that this was not where she wanted to be, nor was this where she was needed. She looked up at the sky, where clouds boiled and rolled, threatening a fiercer storm than the one she experienced now.

And she realized that she wasn't afraid.

The thunder shook her to the bone, a raw and unfiltered power crying out from the storm to dissuade her. But she didn't care what it did to her now.

Others had walked this path, hadn't they?

_Raven_ had walked this path.

Raven had never been afraid.

Buffeted by howling rain, Starfire turned on her heel and began to backtrack. The universe frothed and raged, sending lightning and thunder and hail.

But none of it could deter the Tamaranean's unwavering heart. She walked, shielded from the worst of the storm by a barrier of her own resolve.

The storm broke soon, all its energy burned out of it.

And Starfire breathed a sigh of relief.

In the next dream, for Starfire was positive that it was, she found herself standing waist-deep in a pool of water. In her hands she held a book, and without having to look at it, she knew that it belonged to Raven. It was heavier than it should have been, so she carried it in both arms, like a sleeping friend.

She faced the open water, a vast, blue ocean that grew deeper the further out you went. Turning, she saw Titan Tower, jutting up into the blue and cloudless sky from the little lump of rock that they called home.

On the island's edge stood a figure cloaked in blue, who appeared to be waiting. She smiled, feeling her feet lifting from the ocean shelf and gradually out of the water. With barely a breath, she flew to the island and landed gracefully without a sound. Still dripping water from her skirt, she went straight to the cloaked girl, holding out the book.

A pale hand took it delicately and blue eyes stared out from beneath her cowl. For a moment, they seemed to flicker red, but when Starfire blinked, they were still blue.

_Do you know how the story ends?_ asked Raven, in a voice she couldn't quite hear.

_Yes_, Starfire replied, puzzled but happy. _Dorothy finds her way home_.

_Do you know why?_ asked Raven.

_She had the power to do so all along_, Starfire replied.

Raven nodded, the spark of approval in her eyes. _Do you know how?_ she asked.

_She had friends to help her_, Starfire replied.

_And a gift_, Raven said with a nod. _Give me your hand_.

--

Starfire awoke to find herself in a dark room, on a mattress that felt well-used and warm from her body heat. In her hand, she gripped something small and cold, which she turned in her hand until she discerned that it must have been a ring of some kind.

Someone brushed a curtain aside, flooding the room with Azarath's eternal, sun-less perma-noon. Starfire shielded her eyes with a free hand momentarily while she adjusted to the change in light, hiding the ring that she held tightly in her other hand.

"Hello again," said a woman's voice. It sounded familiar, and Starfire soon knew why. When she looked up at the woman, she locked eyes with the white-cloaked Azarathean who bore a striking resemblance to Raven, the one who Starfire had so feared… until now. The woman's eyes were kind as she asked, "Do you know who I am?"

Starfire nodded, and without much thought replied, "You are the mother of Raven."

The woman smiled a _real_ smile, with real feeling behind it, unlike the vague, emotionless ones given to them by the other Azaratheans. "My name is Arella."

Starfire stared at her for a long while, musing on how similar the daughter really was to the mother.

"May I sit?" Arella asked, gesturing to a space of bed near her feet.

Starfire nodded quickly, shifting to sit cross-legged, so that Arella would have more room. She wasn't quite sure what to say. "I am sorry," she blurted. _For so many things_, she thought.

Arella smiled again, motherly. "You should not worry. It was not your fault." She reached over, placing a hand atop Starfire's, the one which grasped the gift ring. She clenched her fist in response, and quickly placed her free hand over Arella's. The Azarathean didn't notice, instead taking her free hand with the same, maternal smile. "That was a very brave thing you did, Starfire."

"I do not feel brave," she muttered.

Arella shook her head. "You took much upon yourself for the sake of your friends, even though it pained you to do so." She tilted her head, to gaze into Starfire's sad eyes. "Almost too much, in fact. You were unconscious for quite a while. Your friends were very worried."

"Where are my friends?" the Tamaranean asked, brows furrowing in confusion and concern. She didn't much care about the first few statements while her comrades were in an unknown state.

"They are resting uneasily, I imagine." Arella gave Starfire's hand a comforting squeeze. "I will take you to see them in a little while. First, we must discuss a few things…"

Starfire pulled her hands away from the Azarathean, a dubious look in her emerald eyes. "Such as?"

"Back in that room… You absorbed the emotion of your friends," Arella explained. "Their anger and their fear. You took it away into yourself, and then you released it into the ether." Starfire's expression turned to shock, though Arella remained cool. "You have never done so before?"

"No! I am not the one who… I cannot!" Starfire stammered, "Raven! She-…!"

Arella quietly studied the gilded Tamaranean's face. "I see."

"I am sorry," Starfire said, quickly.

"There is no need to apologize. When we first laid eyes on you, we knew that Raven was already gone." Arella stood, smoothing out the wrinkles in her robe. She didn't make eye contact, instead choosing to stare at the floor. "Raven would never have done such a thing if she did not think it were necessary."

Starfire had the sudden feeling that the discussion had nothing to do with their arrival in Azarath.

"I… I do not understand…"

Arella turned and regarded Starfire with a sad smile. "I am glad that my Raven had friends as incredible as you."

Starfire felt heat burning in her cheeks and salt pricking at the backs of her eyes. "No!" She lowered her gaze, feeling her insides grow cold. "I am not the friend you think I am… I…" Tears welled up at the thought of what she had done. "I turned her away when she needed me the most…"

"That is not what we witnessed," Arella told her, firmly. "For whatever reason, you bear pieces of Raven within yourself; pieces which have taken root and _flourished_.

"I have no doubt that she transferred these pieces to you so that you could care for them, as much as you care for those around you. What you carry is the last of Raven, well hidden and deeply guarded from even your own mind. I imagine she intended it as thus, so that Trigon would never find it. How can he, when the soul that holds them is so pure?"

"That is just it!" Starfire shouted, getting to her feet, both fists now clenched. "I am not pure! I am hateful and bitter and I do not deserve to care for her!"

Shaking, Starfire sat down once more. She hung her head, feeling herself unfit to gaze upon the woman in white, a person clearly purer than herself.

"You are not without your own demons," Arella admitted, gently, "But you have the ability to overcome them when the time is right." She placed a hand beneath Starfire's chin, lifting her face so that it could bathe in the golden, radiant light from outside. "I did not witness what happened, but Coman has told me that he saw you perform a ritual that only Raven was capable of doing: taking the unhappiest of emotions and cleansing them, living them for others so that they would not have to suffer."

Starfire let the words sink in, thinking them over carefully. And then things began clicking into place. She knew now why Raven had kissed her. Raven had chosen her, charged her with guarding the most beautiful part of her humanity: her self-sacrifice. Everything that had made Raven, _Raven_.

And she would not let it go to waste.

She locked gazes with Arella, who looked struck for a moment, before it melted into a teary-eyed smile. "My daughter," she whispered.

Arella knelt, taking a frozen Starfire into her arms and embracing her. The Tamaranean felt an intense and ancient thing take hold of her heart, a feeling as old and as beautiful as the setting sun, a feeling that wrapped her in unconditional warmth. Without much understanding what Arella had seen, Starfire quietly returned the hug.

For the first time, Starfire opened her hand, to peek at the ring there, holding it in the light behind Arella's back. It glistened, small and gold.

--

With Arella at her side, Starfire walked into the alabaster house where her friends were resting. She was nervous, though she did not know why, and she toyed with the ring, which she had placed on her left pinkie: the only finger that the ring fit. It was much too small for her, clearly a possession of Raven's, dream or not.

They all sat up straight when she entered, calling out in surprise and joy that she was alright. They took turns embracing her, and Starfire had the opportunity to feel just how much they cared for her. Even Hot Spot, whom she barely knew, had a deep and lasting respect for her boldness.

Arella stood silently to one side, not interfering, her smile hidden by the shadows of her white cowl.

"Geez, girl, you had us worried sick," Cyborg laughed, ruffling her hair. "You 'bout gave Rob a heart attack, faintin' like that."

A few of the others snickered, while Robin chuckled and shook his head. "I'm not afraid to admit it. I was just as worried as the rest of you."

"Yeah, and I don't know what you did back there," Cyborg announced, tapping his metal-covered chest, "But I feel amazing."

"For the record, _I_ think you're insane," Hot Spot stated, with a blank and honest look. But then he smiled, and clapped a hand to her shoulder. "Keep it up and I think we might just get out'a this alive."

"I'm inclined to agree," Speedy laughed, though he paused and added, "With the second part. I don't think you're crazy. Well, not _crazy_ crazy, but… _good_ crazy."

Beast Boy, at the moment a small cat, purred raucously and rubbed against her legs. Starfire beamed, finally beginning to feel at ease for the first time since their arrival to this desolate place.

Starfire smiled broadly, gratefully basking in the merry banter and close-knit ties.

"Coman told us why Raven sent us here," Robin said grimly, immediately knocking the smiles from everyone's faces. "He said Trigon's taken over Earth."

"He said a lot of things," Hot Spot spat, his molten skull a tumult of mixed emotion. "A lotta stupid superstition -- more of their cult bull."

Beast Boy, now a puppy, leaned his head against Starfire's shin and made a whining noise. Starfire looked down at him sadly, and her eyes never left his form, though her question was directed at Robin. "What else did he say?"

"Things about Raven," he supplied. "None of it sounded too good."

"Is there nothing we can do?" her voice was quiet, almost a whisper.

"He didn't think so," Robin answered honestly. "He said we'd have to--"

"He's full of crap!" Hot Spot yelled, voice cracking. "I'm not buying into this! You can't just expect me to kill your friend and walk away!"

No one said a thing. Beast Boy let out another whine, pressing closer to Starfire.

After a moment, Cyborg stepped forward. "Hot Spot--"

"No! I'm sick of this place! I'm sick of these _people_! They don't even act like real people – they don't smile, they don't get mad... They barely _blink_, for God's sake!" He shoved the bigger teen, or tried, and stumbled backwards. "I tried to be polite, but use your heads! All those people out there, they're just waiting to _die_. And not just die, but die at the hands of a giant _space_ demon. These people are so far gone, it's not even funny!" He breathed hard for a moment, glowering at the Titans, eyes smoldering with real fire. "What, you can't even look at me now? You know I'm right. If you use your heads, you _know_ I'm right."

"Uhm, H…?" Speedy raised a hand, pointing to something behind Hot Spot.

The fiery Titan raised an eyebrow, and looked behind himself. In the door stood the white-cloaked Coman, and to one side, Arella, still.

"So that is what you think of us," Coman said, eerily composed. "Is this how you repay the kindness of others?" he asked, in a tranquil voice.

"I…" Hot Spot faltered, thrown off by the dulcet, guilting tones. "I…"

"It is almost time," he continued, this time addressing only Arella. "We are gathering at the temple for the ritual."

"Ritual…?" Starfire murmured aloud.

"We will gather and go in peace, as one, when Trigon comes." Arella's expression was emotionless, though Starfire sensed her unwillingness to go.

"Can't you fight him?" Hot Spot questioned, his fists clenched at his sides. "We're here, we can help you!"

Coman looked at the boy curiously, before the expression dissipated back into nothing. "We will not fight Azar's legacy. It is against our creed." He looked upwards, as though requesting strength from a higher power.

"Legacy…?" Starfire asked, brows furrowing.

"It was destined to always be this way from the moment the legacy was born," Coman confirmed with a nod. "It was in the nature of it. Azar foretold of it, and we willingly go to our graves to defend that prophecy. And, though the legacy may have taken our lives, we shall live on in other ways."

It was then that Starfire realized that Coman was talking about Raven.

"How dare you-!" she cried, infuriated by his passivity. "How dare you speak in such a way about my dearest friend-!"

The other Titans looked surprised at her sudden outburst, though it soon registered as to why she had.

Coman looked just the slightest bit taken aback, though he quickly recovered. "I know how you feel, child. At first I, too, saw the injustice in Raven's treatment, but--"

"No! You do _not_ know!" her eyes flashed with emerald fire as all of her pent-up anger began to bubble to the surface. "You speak of her as though she is already dead! How can you _possibly_ know what I feel? You do not even care that she is gone!"

"That is untrue; we loved Raven like she was one of us--"

"She _was_ one of you! She was born among you!"

"Raven was lost to us," Coman's voice had risen in volume, involuntarily swept up in Starfire's passionate tirade. "She has always been so, from the moment of birth--"

"You _made_ her into a pariah!" Starfire screamed, "You separated yourselves so thoroughly that you would not see when she suffered because of it! _You_ are responsible for sending her to her death; it is _her_ blood on your hands, not the other way around!"

"Raven was raised knowing what she was," Coman snapped, his expression agitated, and his posture defensive. "We used no deceit, no trickery. Raven _knew_ what she was, and she willingly adopted our passivity! She wanted to be a better person!"

"_Passivity_," Starfire spat, practically growling the word, "I said before that you have sent her to her death, but I am wrong. You killed her long ago. You killed her when you forbid her from her own emotions! You dream of the endless peace, of a life without wanton passion! But lives without conflict, without joy, without hate or love or _lust_ are not lives at all! You cannot understand what I feel. You can _never_ understand! You are a people of the distant stars! You pray to a false goddess who preaches only passive silence, and though you may believe that you are doing good, _you are no better than Trigon's own_!"

"Hold your tongue, girl!" Coman eyes now sparked with anger. "You may not agree with the things we believe, but I cannot allow you to blaspheme our faith!"

"Faith? You speak of _faith_?" Starfire scoffed, indignant. "Faith requires the passion to believe. Passion which _none_ of you possess! You may have rescued Raven, fed her, raised her, trained her - but you did _nothing_ to protect her! You did not let her feel the good or the bad. You led her to believe that they were one and the _same_!" Starfire was inches from Coman, staring into his livid grey eyes, his face red from fury. "When she suffered, you did nothing! You are so self-absorbed in your so-called _harmony_ that you did not acknowledge her pain! Your prayers are for only eternal peace! You worship only the silence! You worship cold, unfeeling passivity! _YOU WORSHIP DEATH ITSELF_!"

"_Enough_!"

"IT IS NEVER ENOUGH!" Without realizing it, Starfire had backed Coman against the wall. He stared at her now with fear in his eyes, and she leaned close to him, and whispered, "You await your martyrdom at the hands of Trigon, but He cannot kill you. You are already dead."

There lapsed a stunned silence as Starfire turned and walked out of the alabaster house. The Teen Titans shared a bewildered glance before hurrying after her.

Arella watched them go. She knew that Starfire had not changed Coman's mind, for he was a very devout man, but she had certainly given him a lot to think about.

Coman slid to the floor, wide-eyed in shock.

--

The Titans hastened down the road, not speaking for some time.

Hot Spot was the first to break the hush. "Does… does she always do that? Freak out and stick up like that, I mean."

"Yes; not always," Robin chuckled, answering all three questions in turn. "And yeah, pretty much."

"Huh," Hot Spot murmured, with a chuckle. He looked up ahead, to where the golden alien was leading alone, and called, "Hey! Starfire!"

She slowed her gait, and stopped, as though realizing something. She turned to look at him, but did not say a word.

Hot Spot scratched the back of his neck, grinning sheepishly. "Hey, I just, uh. Just wanted to say… I still think you're crazy as all get-out… but you're _my_ kind'a crazy. So… thanks."

The Titans caught up to the Tamaranean, who still stood gazing at their fiery comrade. She tilted her head to one side, like a bird, somewhat confused, but smiled anyway. "You are most welcome, friend Hot Spot."

If Hot Spot blushed, no one could tell for sure, but he chuckled bashfully, and that was good enough. Speedy laughed and cheerfully slapped the boy on the back. Hot Spot immediately regained a sour expression, playfully threatening the archer by shaking his fist. "One of these days, Speed…"

"Are you alright?" Robin asked Starfire, in a low voice.

Starfire nodded slightly. She still was not in the best of ways, not having had the chance to regain any of the sun's energy, and the argument had been mentally exhausting, but she felt better than before now that her mind had begun to find peace.

He smiled one-sidedly. "You're lying," he told her outright, but in a joking tone. "_Will_ you be alright?"

Starfire nodded again, this time more assuredly.

"Good," Robin turned to address the whole team. "We need to leave as soon as possible. Coman mentioned a doorway on the other side of the city…"

As though on cue, there was a dim rumble of thunder.

Beast Boy's ears twitched, and he glanced upwards. His green eyes widened. "Woah…" he murmured, "Talk about your déjà vu."

The sky above them was rapidly becoming covered by thick, black clouds that had appeared from nowhere, created from nothing. They multiplied quickly, filling the sky and blotting out Azarath's unexplained light.

"_Great_, just what we need. More rain," Hot Spot muttered crossly.

Speedy snickered, jabbing at Hot Spot's shoulder. "I dunno. You could probably use the shower."

"Oh, classy," the fiery Titan grumbled, rolling his eyes. "A you-smell joke. That's _real_ funny."

"Guys--" Robin interrupted, pointing upwards. "I really don't think this is the time to be joking."

Simultaneously, the group looked up, fixating on the eye of the storm as the clouds began to rapidly swirl counterclockwise, picking up speed and creating a violent wind that began to pound against the white marble buildings. From the storm's center there erupted a violent blast of energy, accompanied by a blinding, vermillion light that faded as quickly as it had appeared, followed then by the most horrendous noise any of the Titans had ever heard or would ever hear again. It was a deafening howl, cracking and shrieking, violently grinding against their ears, the sound of the barrier between worlds being torn asunder. It was unlike anything on Earth or Tamaran, a sound so painful and maddening and indescribable that dug so deeply into their minds that they dropped to their knees and tried to block it out.

And then, for a brief moment, all went completely silent.

And then the world began to shake.

Foundations cracked and pillars snapped like twigs as the ground itself heaved towards the sky. The Titans were floored by the power of the quake, unable to do much more than stare at the ground in front of them. It took a full minute before they began to regain their balance, and still the quake showed no signs of weakening.

Cyborg was the first to his feet, being made of stronger stuff than most. "We gotta make a run for it!"

"How d'you expect us to do that, Tin Man," Hot Spot hollered, straining to lift himself from the writhing ground, "when we can't even get up?!"

Cyborg stumbled over to Speedy and Robin, pulling them up by the backs of their costumes, "This is how! Hang on to me when I get to you!" The two boys planted their feet on the ground, instantly off balance again, and each grabbed onto one of Cyborg's shoulders. They followed carefully, mostly hanging off of their taller friend, as he moved to the next disabled Titan.

"No need to worry about me, Cy!" Beast Boy called, zipping around the half-metal teen as a small bird.

"Fantastic," Hot Spot muttered, as Cyborg pulled him off the ground.

Starfire was in the worst shape of all. Though she was physically the strongest of the Teen Titans, she was now far more emotionally vulnerable. She had pressed her ear to the ground, listening as a thousand years of civilization died in collapse and--

"_Fire_," Starfire whispered, inaudible over the roar of the earth.

Cyborg and the others stumbled over each other when the quake stopped with the force of a racecar hitting a wall, throwing the team ungracefully to the ground.

Hot Spot laughed a little from where he'd tripped and fallen. He pushed himself to his knees, the laugh growing louder. "What, was that it? Was _that_ the space demon's wrath? That's nothing-!"

The eye in the clouds that gazed down over everything on Azarath yawned open, and from it rained a red and evil flame. Then, there came shrieking as something else -- _thousands_ of something -- darted out from that hellish portal. Huge, leathery, worm-like demons swooped down on the poor souls of Azarath, black wings pounding a horrible, irregular beat that filled the air, and belching fire so hot, it could crack stone.

Several of the Titans turned and glared at Hot Spot-- who had stopped laughing altogether-- for speaking too soon, before they scrambled up, tugging each other into motion as they all began heading towards Azarath's dimensional doorway.

Starfire was the last to rise, but she had Robin and Beast Boy pulling at her, forcing her to move with them, though she focused still on the echoes of ancient powers crying out in horror.

"Can't we help those guys-?" Hot Spot asked, pointing back towards the great, majestic Temple of Azarath. "We can probably hold them off if--"

"They beg you to continue," Arella said, quickly catching up to the group from where they'd left her at the alabaster house. "If you linger here much longer, you may not get out alive." Seeing the confusion she'd caused with her appearance, she added, "I am coming with you. Coman has given me his blessing."

Cyborg, alarmed, glanced down at Arella, who seemed to be keeping up moderately well for her apparent age. "Lady, I don't know who you are but--"

"I will explain when we are out of danger!"

"Agreed," Robin stated, his swift steps taking him to the head of the group, leading his teammates with an admirable confidence. Cyborg took up the rear, scanning the sky for the fire-breathing monsters that now flocked among the buildings seeking human prey. Hot Spot and Speedy diverged to either side of their newly formed diamond, keeping Arella, Starfire and Beast Boy within.

Starfire felt useless, sensing the horrifying panic and the paralyzing fear of the Azaratheans on the hill as they fulfilled their prophecy, torn limb from limb and immolated by creatures that were never meant to be seen by the eyes of man. She knew that even if there _were_ some way to stop this slaughter, the Azaratheans would forbid it. They were stuck in their ways, and they had met their foretold end.

Starfire decided then that Raven would _not_ go this way, as her people had. She would make _sure_ of it. Raven did not deserve this fate: she was a kind, gentle, generous person, who deserved life… who deserved _happiness_.

They were within sight of the doorway. The road led straight to it-- or it had, before the earthquake. Now the road was splintered, stones turned and buried in earth, and made their journey that much harder.

The Titans sprinted around mountainous hills of rubble, springing over obstacles as they charged desperately forward, towards a goal that seemed so far away. They could see the humongous doorway clearly from their distance, a marble marvel with her carvings inlaid with ivory in the shape of a hooded woman, whose face they could not see. She was surrounded on either side by coiling sheaves of wheat, ringlets of flowing water and neauvou birds fleeing into the white sky.

They made it to the door within minutes, throwing themselves against its great doors…

And it refused to budge.

"Is _nothing_ gonna go _right_ today?!" Hot Spot howled, digging his feet into the ground and ramming a shoulder into the unmoving door.

"Are we going the wrong way?" Beast Boy asked, before shifting into the form of a gorilla and attempting to push once more.

Robin glanced at where the hinges should have been and shook his head, "No, this thing opens in. We're going the right way, but--"

"That's _it_-!" Hot Spot snapped, his fists suddenly engulfed in fire. "I'm blowing this thing to Kingdom Come!"

Beast Boy stumbled clumsily out of the way, swiftly switching to a rabbit form, while the others dove for cover.

Hot Spot let out a fierce battle cry as he loosed a heavy blast, which hit the door and flowed up along its face, crawled up the cliff face, before dispersing violently into the air. When the smoke cleared, Hot Spot cursed. The door, though it appeared to be scorched, was quite whole.

Speedy levered himself up and turned to frown at the fiery Titan. "Do that again. I think there are a few monsters on the other side of the dimension that didn't quite see it the first time."

Hot Spot turned when he heard the transforming _ka-chink_ of Cyborg's decibel cannon. He saw that the teen-machine, Robin and Speedy had all readied their weapons, and were looking towards the sky. He saw the shadows of dark things on darker wings flying directly towards them, sweeping across the field, spewing fire from open maws. He then looked sharply at Arella, "You-! You live here, so how do we get this thing open?"

"The Doorway to the Unknown?" she repeated, looking surprised. "It requires--"

"Great!" Hot Spot snarled, pitching forward as he hurled a fireball into the deformed snout of the leading monster. "Whatever it is, do it!"

Arella turned to Starfire, who seemed to be readying herself for battle, as well. She took the Tamaranean's golden hand, nodding towards the doorway. The alien furrowed her brows curiously and followed.

The screech of the decibel cannon, the hiss of arrows, the crackle of ice and fire mingled in a cacophony of sounds, a backdrop of decisive and deadly motion on a burning battlefield in a place that had once represented eternal peace. Starfire stared up at the mighty door, feeling dwarfed by its significance. Behind it, she knew, there lay a winding pathway through the gaps between the stars, though how she knew this, she wasn't sure. She placed her hands upon the door…

There was a cry from Robin, one of surprise and pain that made Starfire round on the battle like a mother bear. In the midst of the Titans, there had landed a giant, demonic beast, with horns like a bull and the maw of a spider. It flailed about on six legs, one of its wings frozen and the other shredded. Its tail whipped about furiously, lashing out with a sharp stinger and belching fire wherever it could. Robin lay some feet away, clutching his side. He rolled out of the way, barely avoiding being incinerated, and rose after catching his breath. By then, Cyborg and Hot Spot had already put the demon down.

"Show 'em what you're made of, Rob!" Cyborg called, over the roaring dissonance around them. The Boy Wonder moved swiftly, as several of the hoard began also dropping from the sky to attack them by land, while the others dived to claw and snap at the swamped Titans. Robin vaulted onto the nearest demon's head and ran along its spine, dropping small thermal bombs as he went. As soon as he launched himself from the creature's thrashing tail, to swing promptly onto another unwitting creature's back, the bombs went off, one by one, killing the monster almost instantaneously. Cyborg then took the dead demon by its tail and threw it into the oncoming ground force, slowing them down while Speedy and Hot Spot hurriedly tried to pick away at the ones in the sky.

No matter how many they sent packing, more swooped in to take their place, and it was quickly becoming a losing battle. Starfire began to move forward, to aid her friends, but Arella put her hands on her shoulders. "You must help me open the door!"

Torn, Starfire turned back to place hands on the cold marble. "How do I-?"

"Focus on where you want to go!"

Starfire closed her eyes, picturing Earth, ever spinning, ever changing, and her home away from home. She imagined Azarath's improbable path extending its infinite reach to the Titans' little blue planet, straight down into the Tower, where no doubt Raven was waiting anxiously for them to return. She would scold them, perhaps, and tell them they were all brainless for having left without her, and then Starfire would happily tell her of the things they had seen. She would take Arella with her, watch mother and daughter reunite, and it would be such a joyous occasion… There would be pudding, of course, and music and friends and joking and they would never be apart again…

A soft _click_ came from behind the door, or from within, and it cracked open just slightly. Starfire stared at it, and smiled broadly. She turned to tell her friends, to call them to her, and--

And Robin hit the ground in front of her, crumpled and motionless.

_This is the way the world ends_.

Cyborg cried out in alarm, knocked backwards into the cliff face by an immense clawed hand, one of his shoulders gouged open, showing the sparking circuits beneath. Speedy was on the ground, writhing from a strike that had hit him in the back, while a beast stood over him, ready to take off his head in a single bite. Beast Boy tumbled along the ground, winded, his triceratops form thrown from a duel of horns. Hot Spot swore ferociously, wildly flinging fire in all directions, surrounded by monsters that were wary of approaching, but growing bolder by the second.

_This is the way the world ends_.

Then the ground began to shake, harder than ever as the entire world began to break apart, though now the terrain made no roar but was utterly silent. The city in the distance crumbled absolutely, and the ground began to fall away and dissolve into empty space, with no sound to mourn its passing.

_This is the way the world ends_.

And something deep inside of Starfire's chest snapped.

And she began to glow very brightly green. A force the color of her Starbolts, it lifted itself from her body and took the form of a great bird, towering over her and her companions, as tall as the Doorway to the Unknown and beating with the same ancient power.

It separated itself from her, and she dropped to her knees, staring into the distance with vacant eyes -- eyes without irises or pupils, glowing only emerald green. Arella rushed to her side, holding her upright before she collapsed.

The familiar spread its shining wings, sweeping across Starfire's fellow teammates and covering them in brilliant light. With a horrible screech, the demons protested, stumbling away from the light in confusion. The entity then returned to Starfire, hovering above her, and from it, a barrier began growing, establishing a spherical perimeter between the Titans and the demons, keeping the evil creatures at bay. Even while the rest of the ground and the mountain behind them crumbled away into nothing, the land covered by the barrier and the door remained, floating. The demons took to the skies once more when there was no longer earth to stand on, circling the barrier with bitter howls.

The light faded from the others once they were safe, though the barrier remained. Cyborg rubbed his head, looking astounded by Starfire's display. Arella waved to get his attention, and pointed towards the doorway. "Get the others and go! Her soul-self cannot remain out of her body for long!"

Hot Spot rushed to Speedy, helping him to his feet. Beast Boy went to Robin as an orangutan, and lifted him carefully into his arms. With a last, apprehensive look at Starfire, they went through the doorway. When they had gone, Arella hooked one of Starfire's arms about her shoulders and lifted. The alien was not light, but Arella managed to pull her through the door, which Cyborg shut behind them.

Without anything more to torment, the demons returned to the portal, which closed like an eye, in a lick of flame, with soft sigh of black smoke.

Without anything more to defend against, the barrier shrank back into the avian-shaped entity, and the soul-self slipped under the door, returning to Starfire's body. She remained limp, seemingly unconscious. Cyborg took her in his arms, relieving Arella of her burden, with a sad look on his face. "Makes a lott'a sense, actually."

Her eyes fluttered open, and it was a relief to see her emerald irises once more. She gazed into Cyborg's face, vacant and dazed; she said something, which he didn't catch at first, until she said it again, and again, and again, as though she were still coming to terms with the significance of it, a thing she hadn't understood until now… a thing of which they _all_ had been warned. And she said, in a hoarse and fearful voice, "_Not with a bang but a whimper_."

* * *

**  
A/N:** To be continued.

You're going to have to give me a bit for the final chapter. Not for lack of trying, mind you, but man, this thing is so freakin' epic that it is practically a _saga._ We'll see, though. ;) I won't forget you.

Also, just so you know, I encourage you to post your thoughts, guesses, arguments, questions, or overall attitude in your Reviews. In short, **please review**_**.**_ This chapter was _two years_ in the making, so I'd really like to know if it stood up to your undoubtedly towering standards. Wild speculation and flames are also welcome! I am positively _curious_.

FINALLY, if you'd like to correct my Babel-Fish French, I would gladly (and immediately) fix it. Assuming it is bad. I would not know as, alas, I was schooled in the dead language of Latin.


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